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SPARKS, Nev. (AP) — Sparks police officers fatally shot a motorist who allegedly failed to comply with orders Thursday during a traffic stop after hitting several vehicles while speeding through a residential area and barreling down streets the wrong way, police said.
The unidentified man was shot just before 11 a.m. and pronounced dead near the Sparks Recreation Center where children at a summer recreation program were briefly locked inside a gymnasium as a precaution as the confrontation unfolded.
The events began when a Sparks police dispatcher received calls starting at 10:42 a.m. about "a reckless driver who had hit several vehicles and was traveling at a high rate of speed in the wrong lanes of traffic," said Tim Broadway, a spokesman for the Reno police department, which is leading the investigation into the shooting by officers. No one else was hurt.
Broadway said officers "made contact" with the man driving a Jeep Cherokee but did not say if the officers and the suspect spoke to each other during the traffic stop.
He did not disclose whether the man had a weapon, saying that "events unfolded and at one point officers opened fire, shooting and killing the male occupant in the vehicle."
Officers used CPR to try to revive the man but could not. He was not identified pending notification of relatives, Broadway said.
Broadway declined comment on how many officers were involved in the shooting but said they were put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation of the shooting.
The Sparks Senior Center elderly care home was also placed on lockdown during the incident, Washoe County officials said.
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