By Akiya Dillon, Bryan Horwath
Las Vegas Review-Journal
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A North Las Vegas police officer was shot and killed Tuesday. The person who shot the officer was also killed when the officer fired back despite being shot several times, police said.
“It is with heavy hearts that we mourn the passing of one of North Las Vegas’ finest,” North Las Vegas Police Department Chief Jacqueline Gravatt said. “Police officers choose this line of work because they want to protect and serve the community, knowing the risks and challenges that come with the badge. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the officer’s family, friends and his brotherhood in blue.”
According to a North Las Vegas police news release, officers responded just before 2:15 p.m. Tuesday to a report of a person pointing a gun at another person in the 4700 block of High Creek Drive , near Lone Mountain Road and Camino Al Norte .
When officers arrived, he “ignored their commands” and fled, police said. An officer located the person, who was armed with a handgun, and ordered him to show his hands, the news release said.
Officer returned fire despite being shot several times
“The subject ignored the officer’s commands and approached the officer, and an exchange of gunfire ensued,” the news release said. “The officer was struck multiple times during the exchange but was able to return fire, striking the subject.”
Both were taken to University Medical Center . The officer, who had been taken to the hospital in critical condition, died. The person who shot the officer also died, police said.
Neither of their names were provided Tuesday.
North Las Vegas police said the identity of the officers involved in the shooting would be released after 72 hours.
Near the scene of the shooting, one neighborhood resident, Toni Cooper , said she heard several gunshots and then police sirens.
“I heard the shots, and there were so many of them,” Cooper said. Later, Cooper said, she learned from the neighbor who called 911 that someone had been throwing rocks and brandishing a weapon in the street.
“All of our neighbors are real upset about this,” Cooper said. “I don’t want to see that someone got shot down the street. Something has to be done about people — people who don’t live here — coming into this neighborhood and being violent.”
Officers gather at hospital
Meanwhile, uniformed police officers gathered outside UMC’s main public entrance Tuesday afternoon and evening and could be seen embracing.
By 8 p.m. , more than a hundred people, including troopers from the Nevada Highway Patrol , as well as officers from the Metropolitan Police Department , Clark County School District Police Department , Henderson Police Department and Boulder City Police Department , had arrived at the hospital. Firefighters from the Las Vegas Fire Department were also on hand.
Shortly before 10 p.m. , law enforcement officers, some in uniform and some in street clothes, lined a walkway to a white van outside the hospital.
The officer’s body was then loaded into the van, which left the hospital amid a procession of dozens of law enforcement vehicles that headed east toward the Clark County coroner’s office.
It was the North Las Vegas Police Department’s first officer-involved shooting of 2025.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, the last North Las Vegas officer death was Detective Chad William Parque , who died on Jan. 7, 2017 , from injuries suffered in a head-on car crash the day before.
Other law enforcement officers who have been killed while on- and off-duty in recent years include:
Metropolitan Police Department officer Colton Pulsipher , who was killed in a crash with a wrong-way driver on Dec. 12, 2024 .
Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Michael Abbate and trooper Alberto Felix , who were killed by an impaired hit-and-run driver on Nov. 30, 2023 .
Metropolitan Police Department officer Truong Thai , 49, who was shot to death while responding to a domestic disturbance call on East Flamingo Road in Las Vegas on Oct. 13, 2022 .
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