LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man accused of murdering a veteran Las Vegas patrol officer fired 18 rounds with a high-powered handgun that officials described as an “AK-47 pistol.” He injured the man’s mother-in-law’s leg, a senior police official said Monday.
“As you know, this is a tough punch for our police,” Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Andrew Walsh told reporters, detailing the Oct. 13 shooting in which Officer Truong Tai was fatally wounded. I got emotional when I offered “He was one of those guys who inspired everyone.”
The alleged shooter, Tyson Sean Jordan Hampton, 24, of Las Vegas, used a Century Arms RAS47 pistol and fired 7.62 caliber ammunition. This included the ammunition that mortally wounded the Thai in the side, and the ammunition that wounded Hampton’s wife’s mother in the leg. .
A body-worn camera video clip showed Hampton’s wife and her at the scene of the 1 a.m. streetside domestic argument that provoked her, as Hampton reached out through the driver’s window of his blue sedan. It showed Ty fired five shots and police officer Ryan Gillihan shot seven each time she called 911 for her mom.
Police cars surrounded the blue sedan, and Hampton was arrested a few blocks away after a police dog jumped on him and took him to the ground outside the car.
Walsh said police recovered the alleged murder weapon and a 40-caliber handgun that was not used in the shooting from the vehicle. The AK-47 rifle is a weapon of war developed in the former Soviet Union by Russian small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov.
Hampton is being treated for minor injuries and remains in jail pending a court hearing Tuesday, when he is scheduled to have a defense counsel charged with murder of a protected person, attempted murder, other charges, and misdemeanor domestic violence charges.
Authorities previously described the women who called police into a dispute near a busy intersection east of the Las Vegas Strip as Hampton’s girlfriend and her mother. Struck by a bullet, Walsh said Monday that it was clear the bullet that wounded the woman was from Hampton’s weapon.
A police officer since 2017, Gillihan, 32, is on paid leave pending a departmental review of the shooting with the district attorney.
A funeral for the 49-year-old Thai, who spent 23 years as a Las Vegas police officer, serving as a patrol and trainer, financial crimes investigator and firearms instructor, is scheduled for October 28. The divorced father of a 19-year-old woman was also an avid volleyball player and coach.
Records show that Hampton did not challenge the misdemeanor charge of making a weapon appear threatening during a domestic altercation in Las Vegas in April 2021 and went to court, including surrendering a 9mm handgun. obeyed the order of