‘Help me,’ woman whispers before ex pulls a gun and officers shoot, Las Vegas cops say
A woman stopped at a Chevron gas station in Las Vegas to ask officers for help while her ex-boyfriend was inside her car, police said.
When the woman quietly asked for help at 10:42 p.m., Manuel Edwin Martinez, 34, got out of the passenger side of the car and pointed a gun at the officers, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a news release.
Officers Dominic Lee and Zachary Falldorf then fired at Martinez, Assistant Sheriff Lazaro Chavez said during a media briefing.
He was hit and fell to the ground, and crawled behind the patrol car and jumped up on the bumper before running away from the gas station, Chavez said during the briefing.
Officers fired at him three different times, Chavez said, and he was struck a “few times.” Martinez did not fire his weapon.
After chasing Martinez on foot, officers took him into custody, the news release says. He was taken to a hospital for his injuries.
Martinez had called the woman to take him to the hospital, but when he was in her car he refused to be taken there, police said in the news release.
A video from the gas station shows the woman park next to the patrol car at about 10:42 p.m. and walk over to the officers who were refueling their vehicle.
After being released from the hospital, he was booked into jail on two counts of attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon on a first responder, prohibited person in possession of a firearm and first-degree kidnapping.
This story was originally published January 19, 2022 at 6:40 PM with the headline "‘Help me,’ woman whispers before ex pulls a gun and officers shoot, Las Vegas cops say."
