SandyMaloneLas Vegas, NV – A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer fatally shot an armed man who was holding his wife at gunpoint in front of a convenience store on Saturday night (video below).
Police said Officer Nesheiwat was responding to a 911 call from a concerned citizen who said a man was choking a woman in front of a store on Pyle Avenue, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
When the first officer arrived on the scene, he found Phillip Pitts holding his wife at gunpoint.
“It was immediately apparent that the male was holding the female and had a gun in his hand,” Metro Police Captain Kelly McMahill said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Surveillance video captured a physical struggle between the two before police arrived. Police body-cams filmed the rest of the incident.
The couple’s 10-year-old daughter had been trying to separate them before police arrived, Sheriff Roberts said. Police moved her to safety upon arrival at the scene.
The video showed that the first officer arrived and gave Pitts orders to drop the gun. He also told the wife to move away from her gun-wielding husband.
Officer Nesheiwat arrived on the scene less than a minute after the first officer.
He told Pitts to drop his gun. When the suspect did not comply, Officer Nesheiwat shot him four times.
One of the rounds Officer David Nesheiwat fired at the suspect went through Pitts’ arm and into his wife’s stomach, Clark County Assistant Sheriff Tom Roberts said Tuesday.
Pitts died at University Medical Center shortly after he was transported there. His wife was operated on, and is recovering.
Police said the investigation showed Pitts did not fire his weapon.
Sheriff Roberts said Pitts did not have a criminal history in Las Vegas, but did have multiple arrests, mostly for misdemeanors, in Hawaii. The most recent was in 2007.
Officer Nesheiwat, an 11-year-veteran of his police department, was placed on paid administrative leave per agency policy while the shooting is investigated.
You can see the video of the shooting below – WARNING – Graphic content: