Police: Men shot by officers in 2 Vegas cases wielded guns

A man shot dead by a Las Vegas police SWAT officer after an hours-long standoff fired 20 shots from inside a vacant downtown home after running from officers and taunting them to shoot him, a police official said Thursday.

The death of Trent Xavier Leach, 30, was one of two fatal police shootings at about the same time Wednesday in Las Vegas.

Separately, Henderson tactical officers shot and killed Jose Antonio Oyuela-Palma, 49, when he appeared with a gun on a balcony after a report of a man randomly pointing a gun at people in a residential area east of downtown, authorities said.

Oyuela-Palma died of a single gunshot to the chest, police said.

In Leach’s case, Assistant Clark County Sheriff Andrew Walsh told reporters that Leach fired shots that struck an armored police vehicle and at least one neighboring apartment window.

Zachary Adam, 41, a veteran SWAT officer armed with a tactical rifle, fired one shot, killing Leach as Leach wielded the black 9mm pistol around a corner from behind a door, Walsh said.

No neighbors and no officers were injured by gunfire, but Walsh said a man who argued with Leach before police arrived had been struck in the face with the gun.

Adam, a police officer since 2006, was placed on paid leave pending departmental and district attorney reviews of the shooting. Walsh said it was the sixth Las Vegas police shooting in 2021, and the third fatal one.

Two Henderson officers, Logan Tillmon and Mark Street, were placed on paid leave pending reviews of Oyuela-Palma’s killing. Both officers have been with the Henderson Police Department since 2008, police said.