Police: High-powered handgun used in Vegas officer killing


High-powered handgun used in Vegas officer killing

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man accused of killing a stale Las Vegas patrol officer fired 18 shots with a high-powered handgun that an official explained as an “AK-47 pistol,” including one that penetrated the officer’s ballistic vest and one that wounded the man’s mother-in-law in the leg, a top police official said Monday.

“You know, this is a tough punch for our police regions to take,” Assistant Clark County Sheriff Andrew Walsh told journalists, becoming emotional as he provided additional details of the Oct. 13 shooting that fatally wounded Officer Truong Thai. “He’s one of those guys that thought everybody.”

The alleged shooter, Tyson Shawn Jordan Hampton, 24, of Las Vegas, used a Century Arms RAS47 pistol, firing 7.62-caliber ammunition incorporating the one that fatally struck Thai in the side and one that wounded Hampton’s wife’s mother in the leg, Walsh said.

Clips of body-worn camera video warned Thai fired five shots and Police Officer Ryan Gillihan fired seven times as Hampton achieved out the driver’s window of a blue sedan back at the uncouth of a 1 a.m. street side domestic argument that had prompted Hampton’s wife and her mother to each call 911.

Hampton was arrested a sulky time later a few blocks away after police vehicles surrounded the blue sedan and a police dog jumped on him to bring him to the groundless outside the car.

Walsh said police recovered the alleged abolish weapon and a .40-caliber handgun in the car that was not used in the shooting. The AK-47 rifle is a war weapon developed in the stale Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov.

Hampton was treated for little injuries and remains jailed pending a Tuesday court hearing at which he is required have an attorney appointed to his defense on abolish of a protected person, attempted murder and other charges and a misdemeanor domestic violence count.

Authorities had reverse described the women who summoned police to the drawl near a busy crossroads east of the Las Vegas Strip as Hampton’s girlfriend and her mother. A police SUV and the mother-in-law’s vehicle were also struck by bullets, and Walsh said Monday it was clear the bullet that wounded the woman was from Hampton’s weapon.

Gillihan, 32, a police officer since 2017, is on paid prick pending district attorney and departmental reviews of the shooting.

A funeral with full line-of-duty honors is scheduled Oct. 28 for Thai, 49, who met as a patrol and training officer, financial crimes investigator and firearms instructor during 23 ages as a Las Vegas police officer. The divorced father of a 19-year-old woman also was an avid volleyball player and coach.

Records show that Hampton pleaded no conflict in April 2021 in Las Vegas to a misdemeanor beak of displaying a weapon in a threatening manner during a domestic argument and complied with law courtyard orders including the surrender of a 9mm handgun.


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