By Ashley Silver
Police1
LAS VEGAS — Details are emerging from newly released body cam footage showing the moment a man opened fire on two Las Vegas police officers, fatally wounding Officer Truong Thai.
According to ABC News, Tyson Shawn Jordan Hampton, 24, fired 18 shots with a high-powered handgun during the assault that an official described as an “AK-47 pistol,” including one round that penetrated the Officer Thai’s ballistic vest.
ABC News reports the incident began when Hampton’s wife called police saying she’d been battered by the suspect. Officer Thai and his partner Officer Ryan Gillihan were dispatched to the residence of the woman, who was with her mother, while Hampton sat in a car several blocks away.
Body cam footage shows Officer Thai approaching the man to discuss “what’s going on,” but the officer did not receive a reply from Hampton. The video then shows Hampton initially complying with the officer’s command to place both hands on the steering wheel, before glancing to the right and removing one of his hands from the wheel. The officer is then seen reaching into the vehicle to grab Hampton’s arm and yelling for the man to “get out of the car.”
The suspect managed to remove himself from the officer’s grasp during a short struggle and begin to drive away. As Officer Thai walked back toward his patrol vehicle, Hampton brandished a gun. The suspect began shooting multiple rounds from the car’s window, hitting Thai, who was wearing a ballistic vest. Hampton’s mother-in-law was also hit by the gunfire. Both officers returned fire as the car can be seen speeding away in the body cam footage.
Hampton was taken into custody a short time later after officers spotted his vehicle and used a PIT maneuver to prevent his escape.
Thai, who was shot in the torso, was transported to a local hospital where he would eventually succumb to his injuries. Hampton’s mother-in-law was also transported to the hospital, but her injuries were non-life-threatening injury, police told ABC.
Thai had been a member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department since 1999, according to ABC.
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