Metro: Officer shot man fleeing from traffic stop with stun gun moments before another fired

A Las Vegas police officer told a man fleeing from a traffic stop that if he reached for anything, they would shoot him with a Taser, authorities said Tuesday.

Moments later, one Metropolitan Police Department officer did just that, and another — mistaking a cellphone the man was holding for a weapon — fired a Glock 34 9mm handgun, body camera footage showed.

Assistant Sheriff Fred Haas said that Wunya Lynum, 25, was shot in his right arm on Friday after he did not respond to the officer’s commands to drop what was in his hands, which was later discovered to be a black cellphone.

“When he’s approaching our officer, but you can see the phone in his hands,” Haas said, playing the footage and displaying photographs during a news briefing. “What I want you to look at here is how he’s holding that phone in his hands.”

In one photo, Lynum appeared to run toward an officer while holding a black object with both hands.

“You reach for anything you’re going to get f——— tased or shot, you understand?” Officer Martin Biorato, the officer who shot Lynum, screamed at him right before the shooting, the footage showed.

Officers also yelled “stop reaching” and “gun” several times.

After the shooting, Martin Biorato, the officer who shot Lynum, was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a review. He has been with Metro since 2022 and is assigned to the department’s Tourist Safety Division, Convention Center Area Command.

Police first found Wunya in the passenger seat of an unregistered white sedan near Valley View Boulevard and West Twain Avenue, Haas said. Officers conducting a traffic stop on the vehicle questioned Lynum, who provided a false name and date of birth before running away.

“During this investigation, we did reveal that Lynum had a probation warrant for his arrest for a previous case involving a concealed weapon,” Haas said. “We believe that’s why he gave the false information and why he ran from the scene.”

Lynum crouched behind vehicles in the parking lot of a business, a car dealership, reaching into his waistband and clutching what officers believed to be a gun, Haas said. Lynum, who suffered a non-threatening gunshot wound, later told investigators that he was trying to call his girlfriend, according to his arrest report.

Three officers tackled him after the shooting, the body camera footage showed. He was treated for the gunshot wound at University Medical Center and released the same day of the shooting.

Lynum appeared in court in custody and wore an arm sling on Tuesday morning. He faces three felony counts, including assault on a protected person with use of a deadly weapon, and two misdemeanor charges related to the traffic stop and subsequent chase. One of the charges is for a probation violation.

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.