‘Questionable shooting’: Experts weigh in after Las Vegas police kill man who reported break-in

Family and friends of the man fatally shot by police in Las Vegas this week have expressed anger about the actions of the officer who killed their loved one, but experts are divided about whether the circumstances of the shooting were problematic.

At 12:40 a.m. Tuesday, Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said at a Thursday news conference, Brandon Durham called police to report that two people were shooting into a home in the 6900 block of Wine River Drive. He said they were trying to enter his residence and that he was inside with his daughter, then added that they’d entered the home and that he’d be locking himself in the bathroom.

Officer Alexander Bookman, 26, and two other patrol officers arrived and noticed damage to vehicles in the driveway and to the house, Koren said. They also heard screaming and banging. Then, Bookman kicked open the front door.

Inside the residence, police said, Bookman found Durham and a woman, now identified as 31-year-old Alejandra Boudreaux, who appeared to be struggling over a knife. Bookman gave them commands to drop the knife before shooting six times, Metro said, hitting Durham and causing Durham and Boudreaux to fall to the ground.

Body camera footage indicates they fell after the first shot and that Bookman then fired a series of additional shots. Police recovered two knives, but no guns, according to Koren.

It’s not clear how Bookman viewed the situation. “I can’t speculate on what the officer knew at the time or what the perception of the threat was at the time,” Koren said.

The Review-Journal provided video of the briefing, which included body camera footage of the shooting, to experts, who weighed in on the circumstances that led to Durham’s death.

“It’s a very questionable shooting,” said Paul Hirschfield, a Rutgers University professor who studies deadly force in policing. “I think any expert would agree with that.”

A number of experts disagreed.

‘Fast-moving, dynamic situation’

The use of force in this case was “objectively reasonable,” said Charles Joe Key, an expert on ballistics and police use of force.

Because of the way the call was reported, there was a potential there would be guns involved, said Key. As for the number of shots fired, he said an officer often does not know if he’s hit somebody or if they’re incapacitated.

“You’ve got one individual who has a knife in his hands struggling with another individual so that person is at risk and the officer doesn’t and did not have time to try to determine who was who,” Key said. “He just saw an imminent threat of injury or death (and) he used lethal force.”

In a previous press release, Metro was not clear on whether the man who was shot was the person holding the knife. Durham’s family believes it was Boudreaux who had the knife.

Stephen Downing, retired deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, also pointed out that police were told the victim would be locking themself in the bathroom.

“I don’t really have any criticism of the approach or of the number of shots fired at this time,” Downing said.

“You have a fast-moving, dynamic situation where information given to officers initially was about shots being fired,” said Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, which represents Metro officers, including Bookman. He said he thinks Bookman was justified in shooting Durham.

Based on Durham’s position, with his arms encircling Boudreaux, Grammas believes he appeared to be the suspect.

“They’ve got to make a quick decision on, ‘do I have time to sit here and keep five seconds of verbal commands or am I half a second away from that knife being plunged into someone’s neck?’” he said.

Concerns about shooting

Metro said Bookman gave commands to drop the knife, but Jason Fries, a forensic scientist who reconstructs police shootings for prosecutors and defense lawyers, criticized the way the order was delivered.

Bookman fired the first shot about two seconds after the initial command, according to the body camera footage.

“You gave this man a command to drop the knife and yet you gave him no time to actually do it,” he said.

The officer didn’t assess the situation, Fries said. Instead, he said, “The officer simply decided, ‘I’m going to end this. I’m going to end this now.’ That’s not his responsibility. His responsibility is the safety of both people.”

Hirschfield said it seemed “unnecessary” and “really, really disturbing” to continue firing shots once Durham fell.

But Grammas argued that the knife was “still in play” as Boudreaux and Durham fell after the first shot.

“We don’t fire to kill anyone,” Grammas said. “We fire to stop the threat and if the threat is still there, we have to continue to address it as such.”

Family and friends have been critical about what happened.

“He had his daughter call the police for help and the help shot (him),” said Durham’s friend, Steve Cowan.

Several of Durham’s family members have said they believed the shooting had a racial component, given that Durham was Black.

“What colors are you looking at? Not the colors of the clothes. You’re looking at the color of the skin, and that’s why he’s dead,” said Rachael Gore, Brandon Durham’s registered domestic partner who said she likes to call herself his wife.

Metro did not respond to a request for comment on the family’s allegations of racism.

Grammas pushed back on the accusation. “Race played no factor in this whatsoever,” he said.

The aftermath

Durham’s family said Thursday at their own press conference that they want more information about what happened.

Speaking outside her son’s house, Lenore DeJesus, Durham’s mother, said, “What I want, and what I demand, is answers.”

“The police department owes us those answers,” she said. “Not lies, not made up stories, not things to cover their action. They need to take responsibility for what happened and give us the answers we deserve. We deserve no less.”

Grammas said Bookman was upset by the circumstances of the shooting.

“When the information came out that Mr. Durham was actually the homeowner, he was heartbroken,” Grammas said of Bookman.

“This young man is going to bear this for the rest of his life,” he added.

Tyron Pope, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a retired New York City Police Department sergeant supervisor, said he saw no wrongdoing in the shooting of Durham.

But Pope said shootings like this have long-term impacts on community trust. If people feel unsafe calling the police for help, he said, “it damages the very fabric of police-public safety partnerships.”