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The community of Las Vegas is devastated after a fatal shooting took place at around 2:55 A.M. on Saturday, November 25th. The officer-involved shooting centered around a mentally distressed citizen who was in dire straits. According to police records, the authorities were first informed about the ongoing situation when a woman called 911. The woman told police that her son was expressing suicidal thoughts and wielding a knife before he left his home in Landsdown Place.
The distressed citizen, 51-year-old Robert Pitcher, wasn’t initially located by police, so they began interviewing the family. That’s when they discovered that Pitcher’s son had recently passed away.
Before leaving his home, he had told his family that he was going to be with his deceased son, grabbed a large kitchen knife, and then left.
After combing through the neighborhood, police were able to find Pitcher. Instead of approaching him right away, police did the right thing by first establishing two action teams who were well-versed in de-escalation tactics, communication, and non-lethal solutions. Then, they approached Pitcher. Sadly, the 51-year-old immediately placed the large knife to his throat. He refused to lower the weapon despite police pleas to simply talk out the situation with them.
In an attempt to stop something bad from happening, police attempted to shoot Pitcher with low-lethal bean bag rounds. Police believed that getting struck with these rounds would cause him to drop the knife, but that wasn’t the case. Police continued to shoot low-lethal rounds and attempted to deploy their tasers twice.
Nothing seemed to stop Pitcher, who then began to approach the officers. Officers continued to shoot low-lethal rounds. 18 rounds were shot in total. Pitcher continued to approach officers, causing them to shoot him multiple times fatally. Emergency medical personnel attempted to help save Pitcher, but he was declared deceased at the scene.
Las Vegas Metro Police confirmed that this was the seventh officer-involved shooting so far in 2023.
If Pitcher would’ve survived the ordeal, he would’ve faced serious charges as a result of menacingly approaching the officers and threatening them with a knife. Police say he would’ve faced three counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon on a protected person, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a protected person, and one count of resisting with a weapon.
No one wanted this recent situation to turn out the way it did, and it’s clear that the current way of handling mental health issues isn’t always the best. Despite that, police say they were within their legal rights to use lethal force against Pitcher because they were being equally threatened by potentially lethal force since he was armed with a knife.
Were you recently involved in a police scuffle where you think unreasonable force was used against you or someone else? If so, then it’s important to get in touch with a criminal defense attorney about what happened.
If you’re in Las Vegas or a nearby area, then we want to hear from you. Schedule a call with our lawyers now to learn more about your options and rights.
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