Police Fatality Public Fact-finding Review - Regular Meeting

Welcome to today's police fatality public fact finding review concerning the death of James Polito on 12/06/2023. I am Mandy McKellar. I am presiding over today's proceedings. This review is being held because the Clark County District Attorney's Office has made a preliminary determination that no criminal prosecution of the officers involved in the death of mister James Salido is import is appropriate. Clark County ordinance chapter 2.12 requires a public review following such a determination.

This is not a trial. For the purposes of today's proceedings is to present the public with essential facts surrounding the death of James Palido. Deputy district attorney miss Michelle Fleck will present the fact finding review on behalf of the district attorney's office. She will determine the witness or witnesses to be called. The ordinance does not provide subpoena power on my behalf and does not allow for any other party to call witnesses.

Josh Tomchick has been appointed as the ombudsman. He represents both the public and the Pulido family. He will have the opportunity to ask question of the witness or witnesses. The procedure for questioning witnesses shall be informal with a view of providing the public with relevant information regarding the use of force, and the rules of evidence shall not be strictly enforced. Members

of

the public observing this review may submit proposed rewritten questions on the forms located in the back of this room and present it to one of the officers. I will ask questions unless I determine that they are irrelevant, redundant, or an abuse of the review process. At the conclusion of this review, no former formal determination regarding the manner or cause of death shall be rendered. Additionally, as a reminder, the following material in this review will be that will be presented may contain graphic images or language. Viewer discretion is advised. Does anybody have any questions?

No, thank you.

Okay, then Michelle, you may proceed. Thank you.

Really fast, Michelle. Do you have presentation on your screen?

I don't.

I don't either. There we go. Thank you. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. And our witness today is detective Levitt. Good morning, detective Levitt.

Good morning.

Sir, how are you employed?

I'm currently employed as a police officer for University Police Department.

I'd like to direct your attention back to 2023. Were you employed with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department at that time?

I was at that time. I was with LVNPD for approximately twenty six and a half years.

In December 2023, what unit were you assigned to?

I was assigned to the force investigation team.

Can you please describe what that team is?

Certainly. Force investigation team, conducts a criminal investigation into officer involved shootings, in custody deaths, deadly use of force, as well as things like officer, present suicide or witness suicide.

Now your team would obviously oversee any kind of an investigation within Metro's jurisdiction. Correct?

That is correct.

And did you also oversee university police investigations?

We did. At that time, LVMPD actually oversaw 10 different agencies to include LVMPD when it came to use of deadly force.

Okay. And to include University of Police?

That is correct.

And in December 2023, how long had you been a fit detective?

For about eight years.

And approximately how many in custody or officer involved incidents had you investigated through the course of your career?

So for the course of my time in the force investigation team, I assisted or was part of over 350 investigations. I took the lead on over 65 total investigations and 25 officer involved shootings.

I'd like to direct your attention back to 12/06/2023. Were you assigned to investigate an officer involved death involving decedent Anthony Paleto?

I was.

Can you please describe generally the area where this incident was located?

Certainly. I have some slides to go along with this. This occurred on 12/06/2023 at the University of Nevada Las Vegas or UNLV. Looking at an area overview, the area in question is going to be the southeast portion of the campus near Maryland Parkway in Tropicana. There on the screen, you can see the officer involved shooting location. A closer up view of that shows that it occurred in front of Beam Hall. It's also known as BEH. It's near the Student Union Building and the Thomas and Mack Center. A little bit closer view there shows the Student union adjacent in the plaza area. The front of Beam Hall is where the officer involved shooting occurred.

Now, sir, did you personally respond to this location?

I did.

When you are investigating this type of an incident, do you work alone or do you work as part of a larger squad?

No. I work as part of a larger team. The force investigation team is made up of a lieutenant, a sergeant, and six detectives. We also have what, we refer to as cadre members which are other detectives assigned to other units that we can call that can come out and assist us on large scale events such as this was.

Now for this particular incident, who all from your jurisdiction responded?

There were numerous people that responded. There were a total of 14 agencies that responded but from LVMPD's jurisdiction. This investigation was headed up by three units specifically. It was the Counter Terrorism Center, Metro's Homicide Section, and the Force Investigation Team. The decision was made early on upon meeting and arriving at the scene that LVMPD Homicide and FIT were going to split the investigation.

Meaning the active shooter portion and anything that took place inside of Beam Hall would be handled and documented by the homicide section. And the officer involved shooting portion which all took place outside of Beam Hall would be handled and investigated by the force investigation team.

Okay. So to clarify and we'll talk later about some of the charges that would have been pending against decedent Paleto had he survived. Obviously, there were there was an incident that occurred inside the building involving mister Palito, and he would have been the defendant had he survived those particular charges. Correct?

Correct.

And that was why homicide was taking part in an investigation. That was solely their responsibility and then your responsibility was solely the use of force investigation regarding the death of decedent Pulido.

For the most part that is correct. There would have been I guess some overlap in the sense that some of his applicable charges would have been a temp murder on a police officer that we would have investigated and given the probable cause for. However, the majority of that would have been on the burden of the homicide section. That's correct.

Okay. But for purposes of today's presentation you will be giving information solely as to the use of force as to decedent Paleto?

Yes that is correct.

Now you mentioned a number of people that came to the scene were crime scene analysts involved.

They were, yes.

And did they help to process the scene to find pieces of potential evidence?

Yeah absolutely. Force investigation team works hand in hand with the crime scene analysts. They will document all of the evidence that's found, collected, photograph that evidence for us and impound it.

Did you and your squad then attempt to canvas the area for witnesses, people that either saw something or heard something of evidentiary value?

We did.

And did you also canvas the area for surveillance video for either third party video surveillance or the university itself that may have held video surveillance?

Yes we did.

And then of course you gathered body evidence, body worn camera evidence where it was applicable, correct?

That's correct.

Were there subject officers in this case that you met with and that were interviewed?

There were.

Who were the subject officers?

So the subject officers are university police detectives. The first is, UPD Nathaniel Drum. At the time of the officer involved shooting, he had six years with university police. He also had two prior years of law enforcement service in California. This was his first officer involved shooting. He was assigned, as a detective and because he was a detective was in plain clothes. He did however wear a gun and badge on his, his belt along with extra magazines, and handcuffs and was identifiable as a police officer. But in a plainclothes capacity he was not wearing a body worn camera during this incident.

And to clarify for anyone who doesn't know, subject officers mean people who are actually involved in the use of force. Correct?

That is correct.

Okay. And again, you identified two. Correct. Please continue.

During this incident, detective Drum, provided what we refer to as a walk through. A walk through is an opportunity where we will have it is voluntary. We'll ask that subject officer or involved officer to come into the crime scene with us and to help us identify perceived or where they believed that they were at during the officer involved shooting as well as where they perceived or believed that the suspect was at. It enables us to find pieces of evidence, help identify things that may become important during that investigation. He also provided a voluntary statement or interview to detectives, which we will cover a little bit later during this presentation.

And, again, he was not wearing a body worn camera. Detective Drum's weapon was a Glock 17. That's a nine millimeter semiautomatic handgun. During the investigation, it was revealed that he fired six rounds during this incident. Our second subject officer was, detective Damian Garcia.

He had been with University Police for approximately five years. However, had thirty one years law enforcement experience in Northern California prior to joining UPD. He was a detective with the department. He was also plainclothes, and he actually wore an outer carrier vest that said police on it with ballistic protection during this incident. He also provided a walkthrough. He provided a statement as well, but he was not wearing body worn camera either. Detective Garcia's weapon was a Glock 43 X. It's a semi automatic nine millimeter. An investigation revealed that he fired approximately 11 rounds during the incident.

Now you mentioned that you you and your squad canvassed the area for witness officers, people that either saw something or heard something. Please identify the witnesses the witness officers.

So per LVMPD or force investigation team policy, a witness officer is identified as somebody who did not participate or direct the use of force. In this incident, we had several what we identified as witness officers. Now the majority of these witness officers, did not witness the actual officer involved shooting, meaning they did not actually observe detectives fire their weapon or the suspect fire their weapon. However, were in immediate vicinity at the time the shots were fired. We had officer Bachman who was with all of these are with LVMPD. Officer Bachman who was assigned to LVMPD's canine section. Officer Blount who was assigned to the airport. Officer Brathor who was assigned to

here today.

Officer Reedy, who was assigned to South Central Area Command.

You and your fellow officers and detectives interviewed all of these people. Correct?

That is correct.

Along with the subject officers, were all of interviews consistent with the body worn camera that you observed and the video surveillance from UNLV that you observed?

It was.

Did you endeavor to learn about the decedent, Anthony Pulido?

We did. So the decedent was identified as Anthony James Pulido. He was 67 years old at the time of the incident. He was a resident of Henderson, Nevada. We talked earlier about the applicable charges.

The applicable charges are on screen. Had he survived the incident, he would have been charged with three counts of murder, attempt murder, two counts of attempt murder on a police officer, discharging a firearm within a structure in a prohibited area, burglary while in possession of a firearm, and carrying a concealed weapon on school property. Normally, we go a little bit further into the person's history and mindset. However, that was all documented by the homicide section and released in a report that they put out a few months ago.

Did

you research or do processing on decedent Plato's weapon?

We did. So Plato's weapon was a Taurus PT92. That's a semi automatic nine millimeter handgun. At the time it was collected as evidence it had an expended cart case in the chamber, six rounds in the magazine and that magazine was an 18 round capacity magazine. On the screen is the magazine that was removed from the firearm with the remaining bullets that were in it and the expended car case that was located in the chamber.

And why this is significant is the expended car case shows his weapon had a malfunction during officer involved shooting. The semiautomatic handgun is supposed to, automatically eject the round that has been fired and that cartridge which you see there is supposed to be, ejected, which would allow a new bullet to take its place inside the chamber of that gun and that did not happen during this incident. So he would have been unable to fire once this happened had he not fixed that malfunction.

Were additional magazines found on Decedony Plato's body?

There were. There were he had two magazine pouches on both sides of his body on the left side and right side. The left side had two 'seventeen capacity magazines and two 'eighteen capacity magazines which were both full. The right side had five eighteen capacity magazines which were all full.

Ultimately, was an autopsy done on the decedent's body?

It was.

And what were the results of that?

The autopsy was conducted by, doctor Nathan Schaller on 12/07/2023. The cause of was multiple gunshot wounds, and the manner of death was homicide. There was also a full toxicology which was ran on, mister Pulido. He had numerous items in his system, but none that were significantly of note. There was some oxycodone, however those levels were minimal.

Of course, you learned that four people had been shot by the decedent prior to him being shot by university police. Correct?

Correct.

And three of those people died as a result of decedent Paleto?

Correct. We have three deceased victims from this which were all UNLV faculty. There was a fourth victim as well who did not succumb to their injuries and for the purposes of this presentation and privacy reasons we'll just refer to them as Doctor.

Sir, did you create a timeline based upon body worn camera, the CAD reports, and all of the information that you had from both subject and witness officers?

We did.

Can you please walk us through a summary of the incident by way of the timeline of these events?

Certainly. So at approximately 11:30 in the morning, Paleto arrived at the South Side parking of Beam Hall. At 11:33, Pulido entered the Southeast entrance to Beam Hall. In eleven forty four and thirty nine seconds, University Police received a phone call with screaming and shots fired from Beam Hall, Room 406. Approximately point one zero seconds later at 11:44 and forty seconds, LVMPD received a nine eleven call where a person reported that an active shooter was in Beam Hall and I'm actually going to play a portion of that audio.

Eleven forty four and forty seconds. 911 16496. Do you need police fire a message? Over the line at UNLV in Brisbane Battle, Las Vegas. There's an active shooter on the 4th Floor of the Beam Hall Business Building. Okay. Which campus are you at UNLV? What building? The Bean Anastrella Hall. Say it again? Beeh. Beeh. Yes. 4th Floor? Yes.

What did you hear? A lot of shots and then screaming. How many shots? Six. Did you see a person shooting? No. I'm inside an office.

So, again, those two calls came in almost simultaneously. One goes to University Police Department dispatch, the other to LVMPD dispatch. Both departments, immediately dispatched officers to that location. At 11:46, the first university police officer arrived at Beam Hall, and at 11:49, detectives Drummond Garcia enter Beam Hall. At 11:55 and zero five seconds, Pulido was observed on officer Diazparra's body worn camera as he walked through the downstairs lobby of Beam Hall, and we will play that body worn camera for you in a moment.

At 11:55 and thirty eight seconds, detectives contacted Pulido in front of Beam Hall. And 11:55 and forty seven seconds, officer Morano arrived at Beam Hall, and we will watch his body worn camera as well. At 11:55 and forty eight seconds, gunshots are heard on officer Morano's body worn camera, and at 11:57, officers approached and took Pulido into custody.

Now, you mentioned that during the canvas, you obtained video surveillance from the school as well as body worn camera. Correct?

That is correct.

And I believe, at this point in time, we'd like to give another warning that there is some extremely graphic And 19.

We'll

then

the that.

To body worn camera. Metro And uses the Axon body worn camera system. It consists of a recording device as well as the camera. The camera is mounted on the officer's shoulder either right or left shoulder depending on right or left hand dominant. And it is attached to a device that is continuously recording.

What that means is because the device is continually recording it works sort of like a DVR system say at your home where when you activate your body worn camera it's going to back up thirty seconds and allow you to see the video that was recorded thirty seconds prior to you activating your camera. And at the moment you activate the camera the also engages. So the camera is continuously rolling. What happens when we arrive on scene is we identify officers. We will collect those body worn cameras from them so that we the capability to view that camera on scene as part of our command post.

The officers are also given an opportunity to watch that body worn camera before they do an interview with us. That camera is then docked and that video captured will be uploaded onto the servers.

Please describe the body worn camera footage and show that for the presentation.

Certainly. So the first that we're gonna watch is K nine officer Diaspara. Officer Diaspara arrived at UNLV and I'll actually go over a portion of his statement toward the end of the presentation. He grabs his rifle and immediately responds inside Beam Hall with another group of officers that are making entry, in order to locate the suspect inside. At this time, officers were not aware of the suspect's description. They're simply moving toward the sound of gunfire. As officer Diaspara makes his way up the staircase of Beam Hall from the main entrance, there are loud alarms that are going off. There's a fire alarm going so the video will be very loud.

Describe the timestamp on these. Are these accurate timestamps?

They are. So the timestamp is in what is called Zulu time. So it's synced to one main timestamp. So this is approximately I believe it's seven hours ahead of what we would actually be viewing based on the timestamp.

Okay. So there's like a UTC, like a kind of a universal time that a lot of surveillance will be at and then you'll have to make a calculation depending on the time of year, minus seven hours, minus eight hours. So this timestamp that we see is not real time, it's UTC time.

That is correct, yes.

Go ahead.

Also when you enter, upon Beam Hall for those that are not familiar with the facility, when you enter those Northeast doors, it's kind of like an open atrium type courtyard. There's plants. There's things in there. And you can see up two levels above you to like a skylight. So officer Diaz Barra makes his way up the stairs, he can look over the edge of the railing and see down into the lower courtyard.

So that's what we're going to be viewing. As he's yelling come to us, there's another group of officers across from him that he's telling to come toward him so that they can have more people in their stack as he would refer to it, so they have additional officers as they make their way through. This is a screenshot from his body worn camera. The person we see on the 1st Floor was later identified as Pulido, our suspect. Officer Diaspara did yell toward him to exit the building.

And again, we'll go over his statement later in the presentation. But he did not realize or believe that person was a threat when observed him. The second body worn camera that we'll watch is Canon Officer Murano. Officer Murano is also responding to the active shooter incident. 's driving eastbound through UNLV property on one of the pedestrian sidewalks as he approaches the front of Beam Hall. As he approaches the front of Beam Hall, he's going to briefly see the suspect, but he also hears all of the gunfire and he, exits his vehicle to respond. And so I'll let that play out.

Take cover right now. Hey. Get me right up here. Get me right up here. Come around here. Come to me.

And that's the

Texas Hey. We got a suspect down here. Looks four nineteen. Watch your muzzle. Back up. K. I need a shield. We got a suspect down right here. He looks four nineteen. Glove up. Crossfire. Watch your crossfire. He's right here. Hey. Watch your crossbar. Okay. Let's come around from the back. Okay. Let's come around from the back. We're gonna go hands on. Matt, you with me? Okay. K. We're right. We got the shooter. He's down. Come to me. Stack up on me. Yep. We're gonna cover around to you, Nick. Nick, we're gonna cover around to you. We're gonna take him from the back. Okay? Okay. So go on the back. You hold here. Yep. Hands on. Yep. Go ahead.

I'm with you. Watch right there. Keep cover. Yep. I got his right hand. Got his left hand. Yep. Got his left hand. So just take your time. Just take your time. K. Get another set of hooks here. Here. Here. Hook that up.

Put Okay. Let's roll him on his side. We're gonna need to start getting medical. Watch for the firearm. K. We got the firearm. I don't know. We need to double check and make sure he's okay. Hey. What? What do need, sir? We're gonna need medical. Brad, they're underway. Okay. He's got a JSW to the head, it looks like. We're gonna hold him here and try and get some airway. Let me know him right now. Let's try and look to see. We can't render some medical aid. Hang on. Got something in his pocket. Oh, he's ready to go. Okay. We have additional magazines. We're good here if you guys wanna push through. Okay? Okay. Let's get a scene. Okay. We have some more items here. Yep. Hey. Who? Hey. Hey.

I it it was it was me and the other detective. Any pressure there? Yes. Okay. Here. Take this. Take this. Just set it over there. We just need to do a good check to make sure there's no additional firearms. Okay. Put that over there. Okay. Have additional magazines. Yeah. We can take those off. No. Leave them there. I'm concerned about firearms.

Some still shots from officer Murano's body worn camera as he first arrived. I know it's difficult to see because of the distance, but, there's Pulido on the, passenger side of the patrol vehicle. And a second shot as he's exiting his as Murano's exiting his vehicle, you see Pulido with his hand outstretched with what appears to be a firearm in it, as he's following detective Drum.

You also, located UNLV surveillance footage?

We did.

Can you please describe that?

Certainly. So the footage here that we're going to watch, this is the front of Beam Hall. This camera is south facing toward the stairs leading into Beam Hall. When the video begins, in the bottom lower right portion of your screen, you'll see Paulito come into screen as he walks down that staircase. He pauses for a moment.

You see him look over his right shoulder. As he looks over his right shoulder, that's Detective Drum he's making contact with when the officer involved shooting begins to unfold. There is no audio on this surveillance system. Here comes Pulido, end of view in the bottom right corner now. That's officer Marano, whose body worn camera we just watched.

Detective, please detail the witness officer interviews that you and your colleagues conducted.

Certainly. We'll go through just a few. I'm not going go through the whole list that we had in the beginning. The first is officer Diaspara. That's the first body worn camera that we watched inside of Beam Hall.

Officer Diaspara, during his interview, stated that he heard radio broadcasts of a shooting at UNLV and responded. He parked near the Student Union Building, retrieved his rifle, and joined other officers who were entering the building. When he entered the building, they had no information on a suspect, but due to radio traffic, he believed the suspect was on the 3rd Or 4th Floor. As officer Diaz Barra cleared the floors, he observed areas with cartridge casings and blood on the floor. Upon interviewing officer Diazparra, he was shown his body worn camera in which he instructed the person later identified as the suspect to exit the building.

Officer Diazparra did not recall doing this until showing the body worn camera. He stated when entering the building, he did not have a clear he did not have clear information regarding a suspect description, and the male he observed did not appear to be a threat, was not shooting people, or overtly holding a weapon. He went on to say that he believed Pulido was a faculty member exiting the building. The second was officer Morano, the K-nine officer whose body worn camera we watched. He was eating lunch when he heard the radio broadcast of the shooting, so he responded code three, which just means with lights and siren.

Based on radio traffic, officer Moreno believed the suspect was somewhere near the student union and was actively shooting people. Officer Moreno arrived in the area and observed a male exiting the steps of the school, and then he heard gunshots. Officer Marano ran toward the sound of gunshots. Officer Marano saw a UNLV detective standing and moving near a suspect lying on the ground. Officer Marano began directing officers and assisted in taking the suspect into custody.

Officer Morano did not observe the suspect or detectives fire a weapon. Officer Levitt, who if you remember the body worn camera officer Morano, was wearing the yellow jacket. He was in plain clothes and eating lunch near UNLV when he heard a radio broadcast of an illegal shooting from UNLV campus. Officer Levitt and others with immediately responded. While approaching a building, he heard 10 to 15 gunshots toward his left.

Officer Levitt ran toward that area and observed a male in a maroon shirt and was unsure if he was involved. Officer Levitt then observed an LVM canine officer and moved toward him. As officer Levitt neared the canine officer, he observed a suspect lying on the ground. Officer Levitt assisted with taking the suspect into custody, and officer Levitt did not observe any officers discharge their firearm.

Sir, please detail the subject officer interviews that you and your colleagues conducted.

So the first was Detective Drum. On 12/08/2023, so approximately two days after the incident, Detective Drum responded to LVMPD headquarters along with Nevada Police Union Representative Jennifer Johnson and Nevada Police Union Attorney Pierce Tooler to provide a voluntary statement. Detective Drum was a plainclothes detective assigned to university police. He was at university police headquarters when he heard a radio broadcast of shots fired on campus. Detective Drum and his partner, Detective Garcia, immediately exited the station and responded to Beam Hall.

Detective Drum stated these types of calls do not come from campus, and he believed it was a legitimate threat. They entered Beam Hall at the Southeast Corner where they had observed students running from. Upon entering, they cleared the classrooms adjacent to their entrance, which were unoccupied. Detective Drum could see groups of officers on the 2nd Floor clearing rooms when he heard gunshots from upstairs. He was uncertain if the gunshots were from a suspect or officers.

Detective Drum stated the radio was almost impossible to hear due to the chaos of a loud alarm going off. Due to the officers clearing the floors above them, the decision was made to post up and keys keep eyes on the 1st Floor courtyard. Detective Drum knew there were victims on the upper floors from radio broadcasts. At the time, detective Drum was unaware of any radio broadcast giving a suspect description. Detective Drum observed a group of officers enter the building and move up the stair toward the 2nd Floor.

At the same time, he observed a male that appeared to be a faculty member dressed nicely carrying a bag. The male walked east in the courtyard, and detective Drum yelled for the male to exit but got no response from him. Detective Drum also heard the officers upstairs yell at the man with no response. Detective Drum felt something was wrong due to the male not responding and moving with no sense of urgency even with the chaos around him. Detective Drum moved across the courtyard toward the male and scanned for threats as he moved.

As detective Drum exited the main doors, he holstered his firearm, believing the male was a witness and not wanting to intimidate him. He announced himself as police and told the male to stop but was ignored. He announced himself again as he got closer to the male. The male looked back toward him, turning his body, and reached into a bag and pulled a firearm pointing it at him. Detective Drum reached for his firearm and moved knowing he needed cover.

As he moved, he heard gunshots and knew the male was firing at him. Detective Drum fell to the ground, scrambled back to his feet, and took cover behind a police vehicle as he drew his own firearm. He checked from behind cover, and the male was no longer in the same location. He turned and saw the male had followed him. The male had his firearm pointed at detective Drum as detective Drum fired at the male.

Detective Drum believed the male fired at him at this time as well. The mail went to the ground as detective Drum moved from his position. Detective Drum observed other officers move toward him and give him commands to get cover, and he followed their directions. Detective Garcia also came to headquarters where he provided a voluntary statement on 12/08/2023. He reported to LVMPD headquarters with Nevada Police Union Representative Johnson and Nevada Police Union Attorney Pierce Tooler to provide a voluntary statement.

Detective Garcia was a plainclothes detective assigned to University Police. He was at University Police headquarters when he heard a radio broadcast of an active shooter on campus. Detective Garcia and his partner, detective Drum, immediately exited the station and responded to Beam Hall. While driving, he heard a radio update of shots being fired inside the building. They arrived at the Southeast corner of the building and observed students running from the area.

Detectives Garcia and Drum decided to make entry into the building from the Southeast corner that they arrived at. Upon entering the building, the classrooms immediately adjacent to them were all clear. They posted up near a pillar when he heard five gunshots coming from the floors above. A group of officers entered the building and proceeded up the stairs across from them. Detectives Garcia and Drum decided to maintain their position on the 1st Floor.

Detective Garcia observed an older male exit the elevator. He appeared to be a professor with salt and pepper hair, wearing a long black coat, gray slacks, and carrying a briefcase as he walked in the courtyard. Detective Garcia yelled toward the male who did not acknowledge him. He stated the male appeared stoic and walked slowly. Detective Garcia did not believe the male appeared to be a threat but did not acknowledge their presence.

Detective Garcia heard a group of officers on the 2nd Floor yell toward the male, and he did not acknowledge them either. The male walked toward the main doors of the building, and detectives Garcia and Drum followed him. As they exited the building, detective Drum moved down the stairs toward the male, and detective Garcia maintained a position at the top of the stairs to make sure nobody came up behind them. Detective Garcia observed the male turn, reach into his bag, and point a gun directly detective Drum, and began firing as detective Drum, quote, dodged out of the way, end quote. Detective Drum had moved behind a pillar, and detective Garcia lost sight of him.

Detective Garcia immediately engaged the suspect with gunfire as the suspect continued to fire toward detective Drum's position. Detective Garcia moved to maintain a visual as he continued to fire toward the suspect and emptied his weapons magazine. Detective Garcia observed detective Drum toward the back of a police vehicle as detective Garcia conducted a reload of his weapon. Detective Garcia observed detective Drum and the suspect in a gunfight as he moved down the staircase. As he reached the bottom, the suspect was down, and LVMP officers had moved to their position.

You mentioned that crime scene analysts came to the scene, they processed the scene, documented the scene with photographs, and then preserved evidence, correct? Correct. Can you please describe and illustrate the scene using those photographs that were taken by crime scene analysts?

Certainly. Again, I'm gonna give the warning. There are some graphic photographs and images that will be shown here. So for those that wish to not see them that are streaming, you might wanna pause your video. The first is gonna be a crime scene diagram done by LVMPD CSA.

This is a two scale sketch that is completed to document the location of items to include evidentiary items. In the documentation here, the yellow markers indicate pieces evidence, which would be cartridge casing from fired bullets as well as bullet fragmentations. There were a total of 21 cartridge cases recovered from the scene, 11 on the stairs of BEH which is the lower left portion of this diagram, and 10 on the ground level. Four of those car casings were, positively identified as being fired from Pulido's weapon. The next, the next will be a photograph of the same image.

However, it's a drone photograph, so it'll show the same image but a real time image compared to the diagram. As you can see in the image, the staircase to Beam Hall is not visible due to that canopy or awning that is above it. But that is the scene from a bird's eye view looking down. At the time that, detective Garcia fired his weapon toward Paleto, he was approximately forty six feet eight inches from Pulido. At the time detective Drum fired his weapon toward Pulido, he was approximately thirteen feet ten inches.

This is a ground level view of Beam Hall. This is from the South side on the far right is where Palito would have exited Beam Hall and gone down the stairs. But at the top of the staircase there, you can see the evidence markers cases from Detective Garcia's weapon. This is a closer up view of those evidence markers. This is the far right hand side of the staircase leading into Beam Hall, where Pulido and Detective Drum, came down the stairs.

These are the items recovered, from Pulido. If you recall the body worn camera footage when officers rolled Pulido, they pushed the bag out from under his body and the firearm was there. And the K nine officer removed items from his pocket which included the wallet and the yellow index cards that you can see on the, photographs there. This is a closer view of the index cards. The names, what these cards contained was names and room numbers of professors inside of Beam Hall.

None of these professors or faculty members were actually victims of Pulido as far as injuries during this incident. The names have been blacked out and removed for purposes of privacy in this presentation. Pulido's weapon as it was recovered and taken into evidence to include the cart case that was located inside the chamber of the firearm. The magazine pouch that was worn on Pulido, this is one of them. He had two identical magazine pouches, one on the left side, one on the right side of his body.

Those are the magazines removed from that pouch. All of them are loaded to full capacity. There were other things that were impacted by bullet strikes that morning. Some of these are just documentation to show the additional rounds that were struck vehicles in the immediate area. This is an LVMPD vehicle.

You see two different impacts to the windshield. This is another LVMPD vehicle with one to the quarter panel and one to the tire. And this is the UPD canine vehicle that Pulido and Detective Drum were standing next to as they exchanged gunfire and it had three impacts into that vehicle as well.

Thank you, sir. Presiding officer McKellar, that concludes my questions for detective Leavitt. Okay. Mister Tomchuk, you can proceed.

Thank you. Can you hear me okay, detective?

I can. Thank you.

Just have a few questions for you. At the time this shooting happened on 12/06/2023, school was in session. Correct? That is correct. There were students on campus at the time of the shooting?

Yes. There

were. And there was faculty and staff on scene at the time of the shooting as well? That is correct. Call comes out as a what we would describe as an active shooter scenario. You'd agree with that? Yes. And there's a very quick response. You'd agree with that? I do. In going through your timeline, in your investigation, you're able to go and backtrack when the decedent arrives on campus. Correct? Correct. And you're able to track that he arrives on campus in his own personal vehicle. Is that right? That is correct. And he arrives at approximately 11:30AM? That sounds correct. Yes. Okay. And within a couple minutes, he's in Beam Hall. Excuse me. I'm sorry. What was Within a couple minutes, he's within Beam Hall. That

is correct. Yes.

And he's captured on video going into that particular location? That is correct. Approximately ten minutes later, there's a the first 911 call where shots are fired? Yes, sir. And there's a description given of where those shots are originating. Correct. And an officer actually responds to that location within a minute and twenty seconds. Does that sound about right?

That sounds

correct. And then approximately three minutes after that, the subject officers, Drummond Garcia, arrive at that same location. Yes, sir. In a dynamic situation like that, there's a lot of radio traffic that's occurring?

There's a lot of radio traffic.

The goal being to identify who the person that's shooting is. Right?

Who they are and what their location is.

Yes. Okay. And ultimately to extinguish that threat. Correct. Within a couple minutes of officers arriving, there's a general idea of where the shots are coming from. Correct? Yes, sir. And it appears that this is a multi jurisdictional response. I think you said there's 14 different agencies involved? Yes.

And they're all running towards that gunfire? That is correct. Within a couple minutes of arriving, we've got the body worn camera from the LVMPD that they're interacting with the the subject who's later identified as the shooter? That is correct. When the shooter is ultimately apprehended, there is, as we can see from your PowerPoint presentation, he's got a single firearm in him. Correct? Correct. And it appears that that firearm at the time he's impacted by the shots from Drummond Garcia is not operable. Right? That is correct.

And it's because of what you would describe as a malfunction of that firearm. Yes. A fairly typical one. Yes. Is. But it's one that if not properly cleared prevents him from shooting. Correct. We know at the time that that malfunction happens, he's actively engaging the firearm. Correct? Yes. He's shooting at law enforcement officers.

Yes. He

is. And he's got a lot of ammunition on him. Yes, sir. You showed on the PowerPoint that he's got multiple magazines on each side of his belt? Yes. By my count, he has a 166 rounds on him at the time he shot. That sounds accurate. Okay. Were you able to go back and identify how many times he had discharged the weapon while on campus?

So due to the the break in the investigation, meaning the separation from the interior of Beam Hall versus the exterior Beam Hall, I cannot account for how many rounds were fired inside of the building. I can say that four of the cartridge casings on the exterior Beam Hall were identified and ballistically matched to Pulido's weapon.

Okay. We know that while within Beam Hall he shoots and kills three people correct. And he shoots and injures another person? That is correct. And then immediately upon being engaged by law enforcement, he discharges the firearm at law enforcement? That is correct. And that's captured on the video that we saw? Yes, sir. When that happens, you'd agree with me, both detective Drummond, detective Garcia utilize their duty weapons to stop the threat. Yes. They do. And as soon as it stopped, as soon as the decedent goes to the ground, there's no more shots fired by law enforcement.

That is correct.

And it appears within inside of a minute, law enforcement actually responds and takes him into custody.

Yes,

sir. And then immediately begins medical intervention.

Yes, sir. Medical arrived approximately minutes after

he was placed in handcuffs. But when he's placed in the handcuffs we can hear on the body worn camera I believe it's detective Murano saying I'm gonna start medical aid.

That is correct.

Trying to get an airway.

Yes,

sir. And ultimately, there was nothing that could be done.

That is correct.

I have no further questions.

Any follow-up? No. Thank you. This public fact finding review was held because the county district attorney's office made a preliminary determination that no criminal prosecution of the officers involved in the death of James Toledo is appropriate. Clark County ordinance chapter 2.12 requires a public review following such a determination.

The purposes of today's hearing was to present the public with essential facts surrounding the death of James Pulido. Josh Tomshik was appointed by the Clark County manager as the ombudsman to represent the public and the Pulido family. Mister Tomshik was given an opportunity to ask questions to provide the public with relevant information regarding the use of force in this case. I was appointed by the Clark County manager as the presiding officer to present over this public review. I too was given an opportunity to ask questions to provide the public with relevant information regarding use of force in this case.

Prior to today's public review, the Clark County District Attorney's Office provided mister Tomchick and myself copies of the law enforcement investigation regarding the death of mister Pulido. The documents provided by the prosecution are considered public record. If you missed any portion of this review and would like to obtain the recorded transcript, a video of the entire proceeding is available on the Clark County website at www.clarkcountynv.gov. That concludes the police fatality public fact finding review in the death of James Pulido. Thank you, everybody. Have a good day.