‘He had the gun’: Witness who called police before officer fatally shot gives account

Sasha Rush is ambivalent about her decision to call police Tuesday after seeing a masked man waving a gun in east Las Vegas.

Metropolitan Police Department officer Austin Abdelnabi, 30, was killed by an armed suspect near the tax preparation business where she works on Tropicana Avenue.

“Personally, I feel shitty that that cop died, because if I wouldn’t have made that call, maybe he would have still been alive,” Rush said, adding that had she not called, others could have been injured, too.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Abdelnabi was ambushed. Police have said he was shot after he responded to a call about a man with a gun near the 4500 block of East Tropicana Avenue.

Although the details match, police have not confirmed the connection between Rush’s call and the officer’s death.

Rush said that at 3:55 p.m., her mother was outside for a cigarette break.

Her mother saw a man cross the street. He pointed a gun at her and she rushed back into the office, Rush said.

She told Rush: “Hey, there’s a guy with a gun,” Rush said.

“Me and my cousin got up, and we looked out our side window, which is on the east of the office, and we literally seen him,” Rush said. “He had the gun, he was waving it around, he was wearing a ski mask so you can only see his eyes. He was wearing a black hoodie, he had a black backpack on, black shorts, black socks and black boots.”

The masked man did not come into the business where she works, but Rush said she called the police around 3:57 p.m., the time McMahill said a caller reported someone waving a gun.

She said the gun was a small gun but had become longer with some kind of extender.

At 4:01 p.m., an officer showed up to Rush’s office, she said. She told him where the man with the gun was walking and showed the officer surveillance footage.

The officer then took off down Merrill Avenue after the suspect, she said. She did not witness the actual shooting.

Surveillance video provided by Rush shows the armed man run across Tropicana and stride down Merrill Street near the business.

Lorena Osuna, Rush’s cousin, cried during an interview, saying she had prayed that everyone would be all right and was saddened by the officer’s death.

At the scene, there were signs that something bad had happened, like the presence of a helicopter and traffic, she said.

After leaving the office, she went to church and prayed for Abdelnabi’s family.

“I feel guilty, too, because we’re the ones who called the cops,” Osuna said. “But we never thought it was going to be like this.”