Las Vegas police are investigating after an officer fatally shot a 43-year-old father who called 911 for help during a home invasion.
Brandon Durham called 911 Tuesday morning to report that two people were shooting outside his home and trying to break in, police said. His was one of several 911 calls reporting a shooting in the city’s Sunset Park neighborhood, Las Vegas Police Department Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said last week.
Durham reported that he was in the house with his 15-year-old daughter and that he went to lock himself in a bathroom, Koren told reporters Thursday.
“The loss of life in any type of incident like this is always tragic, and it is something we take very seriously,” Koren said.
Koren said three officers responded to the home at 12:40 p.m. and “immediately” saw damage to multiple vehicles and the home’s windows.
Body camera footage was played during a news conference Thursday. It showed officers kicking in the door of the house upon arrival as shouting could be heard inside the house.
An officer storms in with his gun drawn and walks through a narrow hallway, where shouting and banging can be heard.
It shows two people wrestling in a doorway, one in a red sweatshirt with a hood over his head, and the other a man apparently in his underwear with his arms around the person in the sweatshirt.
The man without clothing was later identified as Durham and the person in the sweatshirt as Alejandra Boudreaux, a suspect in the case.
“Hey, drop that knife,” the officer said. “Drop the knife.”
About two seconds after giving the order, the officer fired the gun and Durham appeared to be hit, the video shows. Both Durham and Boudreaux fell to the ground, and the officer surged forward and fired his gun five more times, according to the video.
The knife was circled in video footage shown by Koren that captured Durham and Boudreaux in the doorway and again on the ground.
The investigation into the shooting is still in its early stages, Koren noted, but there were about three seconds between the first and last shots.
Officers attempted to provide medical treatment to Durham, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Boudreaux was arrested during the incident, Koren said. She is charged with home invasion with a deadly weapon; assault with a deadly weapon domestic violence; deliberate or wanton disregard for the safety of persons resulting in death; and child abuse, neglect or endangerment.
Court records show Boudreaux is in police custody and will appear in court on Monday. No attorney is listed as representing her.
It appears she may have had a relationship with Durham, Koren said, but police did not clarify what that relationship might be. Police believe the incident was targeted and not a random act of violence.
A criminal complaint filed in her case was obtained by NBC affiliate KSNV. The complaint alleges Boudreaux broke into the home with a gun with the intention of provoking a police response known as “suicide by cop,” the station reported.
NBC News was unable to obtain a copy of the court complaint on Sunday.
The officer’s use of force will be judged by the standard set out in the Supreme Court’s decision in Graham v. Connor, Koren told reporters. The decision stemmed from a 1984 police brutality case and established an “objective reasonableness” standard for the use of force.
A review of the shooting will take into account what the officer’s “threat perception” was at the time, Koren said.
“Our officers unfortunately have a very challenging job, where during these types of incidents they do not have the ability to freeze time and stop a video and then spend minutes, let alone hours, days or months analyzing that information to make their decision,” Koren said.
Durham’s 15-year-old daughter Isabella told KSNV she was angry at the police department, which has made sure she “will live the rest of my life fatherless.”
“The violence that took place here took place under the leadership of someone who was extremely, extremely angry and extremely violent,” Isabella said. ‘And I’m disgusted by the way the Metropolitan Police told my father, after killing him, to stay down.’
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live on 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for extra support.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
