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LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 25-year-old ex-convict who was killed by Las Vegas police last weekend was turning with a gun in his hand toward the officer who shot him twice in the back as they ran into an industrial area of North Las Vegas, a police official said.
James Marcus Brown III collapsed following the 3:17 a.m. Saturday shooting in a vacant lot telling the officer, Walter Young II, not to shoot him again and he wasn't going to run anymore, Las Vegas police Undersheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters during a use-of-force briefing on Tuesday.
Brown was later pronounced dead at University Medical Center.
Young was in uniform and had been driving an unmarked police vehicle, McMahill said. He wasn't wearing a body camera, Officer Laura Meltzer said Wednesday.
Young reported seeing Brown run from the back seat of a gold Buick LeSabre sedan stopped during a theft investigation by a marked police cruiser near the Cheyenne Avenue overpass to Interstate 15, McMahill said.
Police aired audio of Brown giving chase on Losee Road and radioing to a dispatcher that he saw Brown drop a gun as he ran. A little more than 30 seconds later, Young reported shots fired and that the man was on the ground.
In a briefing recorded and posted to the Internet, McMahill said Young tried first to use a stun gun to stop Brown before firing two shots.
The undersheriff showed a photo of a .40-caliber handgun that he said Brown had with him, with nine bullets in a clip and one shot in the chamber. He said police knew Brown was a gang member from the Southern California city of Lancaster who served prison time on convictions for receiving stolen property and possession of a stolen vehicle.
Two other people remained in the vehicle, where they were arrested. McMahill said the driver, Byron Amerson, 31, was booked on larceny from a person, conspiracy and possession of stolen property charges. A passenger, Emmanuel Maybon, 31, was held on a contempt-of-court warrant.
Young, 33, an eight-year Las Vegas police veteran, was on paid leave pending departmental and Clark County district attorney reviews of the shooting. McMahill said it was the ninth shooting involving Las Vegas police officers in 2015.
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