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LAS VEGAS (AP) — A veteran Las Vegas police SWAT officer has been cleared in the on-duty slaying of a one-time casino security officer who police said wielded a handgun and an assault-style rifle during a standoff more than a year ago.
Officer Charles Moser was legally justified shooting Ronald Wayne Tate, 58, dead during a police standoff at a recreational vehicle that Tate had parked in a skydiving parachute landing zone at Jean Airport, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said.
The prosecutor's report, released Tuesday, followed an April 17 public airing of evidence in the officer-involved shooting.
With police surrounding the RV, Moser saw Tate operate the bolt mechanism on an SKS-style semi-automatic rifle, Wolfson said. Moser fired once with a scope-equipped .308-caliber rifle from a distance of more than a football field.
Tate died on the spot of wounds to the head and chest, according to a Clark County coroner's report.
Inside the RV, police found a handgun and a shotgun that had both been recently fired, the district attorney reported.
Wolfson said Tate's behavior had become erratic in the days leading up to the shooting in a dry lake bed about 30 miles south of Las Vegas.
He was ordered off the properties of a gasoline station, a motor home sales business and a camping equipment business for what people characterized as erratic behavior. Officers determined each time that Tate wasn't a danger to himself or others.
After the slaying, Wolfson said, Tate's half-sister told investigators that he had worked as a correctional officer in Polk County, Florida, and a casino security guard in Mesquite, Nevada. The woman told police that Tate had been displaying suicidal thoughts, including disposing of his assets and thanking her for helping him in his life.
A skydiving school employee told police that Tate told him when he approached the RV that he had a bomb. Wolfson said Tate's actions during the standoff "left officers with no choice but to protect innocent people in the area from imminent harm."
Moser, 45, has been a Las Vegas police officer for about 15 years.
Tate was one of eight people who died in 16 Las Vegas police officer-involved shootings in 2014. Eight were wounded. Each was armed when they were shot, according to police.
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