Tag: wrongful death

Somebody has to answer for this,’ says father of inmate who was strangled

Posted by Peter Goldstein on
Jason Dickman, inset, was strangled by another inmate at the Clark County Detention Center in May 2021. His father, Richard Dickman, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Richard Dickman remembers exactly what the assistant sheriff said during the phone call about his son’s killing in a Las Vegas jail.

“He said, ‘We failed your son, and we failed you,’” said Richard Dickman, recalling the conversation he had with Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Andrew Walsh in the aftermath of his son’s death.

 

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Las Vegas Police Sued Over Death of Man Wielding Toy Sword

Posted by Peter Goldstein on
This early 2000s photo shows Lloyd Napouk in his Navy uniform. Napouk was shot and killed by Las Vegas police in 2018 after a five-minute negotiation. (Napouk family)

The family of a 44-year-old man who was shot and killed by Las Vegas police while holding a toy sword has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the department.

According to the complaint, filed on Oct. 5 in federal court, officers killed Lloyd Napouk in 2018 “for refusing to comply with their commands and not because he ever constituted a threat.”

It called the shooting “excessive and unreasonable,” and names the Metropolitan Police Department, Sgt. Buford Kenton and Officer Cameran Gunn as defendants.

Metro declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing pending litigation.

Napouk died just before 12:40 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2018, after a roughly five-minute negotiation with officers. He had been holding a plastic sword that was “very special to him,” police said after the shooting.

The lawsuit argues that police should have known that Napouk was only holding a toy sword and that Metro failed to discipline or train officers in the use of deadly force or crisis intervention training.

“This was clearly not an immediate defense-of-life situation,” attorney Peter Goldstein told the Las Vegas Review-Journal this week. “It was a horrible shooting, and it never should have been.”

Goldstein said police violated Napouk’s rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act because they “should have known how to accommodate (Napouk’s) mental illness by employing de-escalation strategies.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Napouk’s parents, Gerald and Mary, and a co-special administrator, Las Vegas attorney Fredrick Waid.

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Peter Goldstein A Personal Injury Lawyer

Green Valley Ranch, security guards sued over 2019 shooting death

Posted by Peter Goldstein on
A police car sits outside of Green Valley Ranch casino in Henderson, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019.

The son of the armed man who was gunned down by two Green Valley Ranch Resort security guards on New Year’s Day 2019 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the casino and four of its employees.

The complaint, filed last week in Clark County District Court, alleges that the guards who shot 53-year-old Shannon Howell a combined 23 times “had no lawful authority to issue commands to Howell.”

It also states that Howell “was under no legal obligation to follow the commands of (the security guards) nor did he have time to comply with any commands before he was shot.”

Howell’s son, Dalton Howell, is seeking damages for false imprisonment, assault, wrongful death and negligence. Security guards Karl Stephens, Larry Norman, Jesus Arellano and Richard Parents also are named as defendants.

A spokesman for Red Rock Resorts, which owns Green Valley Ranch, declined to comment on the lawsuit Monday, citing pending litigation.

Security called

On Jan. 1, 2019, patrons at Green Valley Ranch called security to report that Shannon Howell had been walking around with a handgun, according to the complaint.

Parents approached him at the pool and told him the area was closed and he had to leave. He “did not inform Howell that he could not have a firearm in the hotel nor did he contact law enforcement,” the complaint states.

Howell left the pool area and sat down by himself on a couch in the east tower.

Despite carrying a firearm into a casino being legal under state law and Arellano having “no knowledge that Howell had committed a crime,” the complaint states, Arellano radioed other armed guards at the casino to search for Shannon Howell.

Arellano and two other guards, Norman and Stephens, approached the elder Howell in the east tower and asked if he had a firearm. He said he did, according to the 19-page court document.

Stephens and Norman then drew their weapons on Howell and yelled “unclear commands” for several seconds, the document states.

When Howell stood up from the couch and allegedly “appeared to be reaching towards his pocket,” the complaint says, the two men then shot him 23 times. He fell backward, with a Glock 19 found lying next to him.

No charges filed

No criminal charges have been filed in the death.

Attorney Peter Goldstein said his client, Dalton Howell, is an only child who was just 18 when his father died. Goldstein said the young man hasn’t been given many answers about the death.

“He had a very close relationship with his father. It’s just devastating for him,” the attorney said. “We really want to get to the bottom of what happened here.”

Goldstein said he wants to obtain video surveillance of the shooting, which could shed more light on the case.

By   Las Vegas Review-Journal
Source: https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/las-vegas-police-report-details-injuries-to-arrested-officers-kids-2036287