Officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) fatally shot a man who charged at them while holding a sword-like object Tuesday, a video published Thursday shows.
An officer responding to a 9-1-1 call at about 12:43 a.m. Tuesday concerning an apparent suicide attempt found Jose Luis Saenz, 41, bleeding from his arm and armed with a bloodied 29-inch-long, 1-inch-wide object which the officer believed was a sword, LVMPD Assistant Sheriff Yasenia Yatomi told reporters. The officer ordered Saenz to refrain from approaching him and walked backward as Saenz kept walking closer, Assistant Sheriff Yatomi said.
“Stay where you’re at!” the officer and backup officers arriving at the scene yelled at Saenz.
“He’s walking toward us,” the officer said to colleagues. “Hey, stay where you’re at! Stop fucking walking!” they called to Saenz, who kept advancing towards the officers, the video shows.
Saenz briefly walked backward as an officer approached to shut the police vehicle’s door, apparently to prevent the possibility of Saenz getting into the vehicle. As the officer walked backward from the vehicle, Saenz resumed walking toward the officers, according to the video.
“Forty now, forty ‘um!” the officer appeared to signal to a colleague to deploy a 40-mm less lethal launcher. An officer fired the launcher at Saenz’s leg and Saenz fell to the ground but quickly stood up, the video shows.
“Get on the fucking ground!” an officer said to Saenz, who rushed towards the officers while still armed with the sword-like object. As he neared the officers, he could be seen raising the object above his head with his one good arm while his other arm bled from his reportedly suicidal wound, the video shows.
“Shoot him,” an officer can be heard ordering before shots rang. (RELATED: Video Shows Cops Fatally Shooting Suspect Who Attacked Them With Plastic Fork)
The officers rendered aid and emergency personnel transported Saenz to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Assistant Sheriff Yatomi told reporters. Had Saenz survived, she added, he would have faced three counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a protected person and one count of resisting with a weapon—not a firearm.
The fatal shooting of five rounds was the second fatal officer-involved shooting in 2024, Assistant Sheriff Yatomi told reporters. There had been no officer-involved shooting in the first two months of 2023, for comparison, she added.