Vegas officer on life support after attack during protests

https://news.yahoo.com/vegas-officer-life-support-attack-151509994.html

MICHELLE L. PRICE and KEN RITTER
,Associated Press•June 2, 2020


A police officer was on life support Tuesday after being shot during a protest on the Las Vegas Strip, the latest in a handful of attacks on police amid demonstrations across the country over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The 29-year-old officer in Las Vegas was shot as police tried to disperse a large crowd of protesters in front of a casino shuttered because of the coronavirus.

At about the same time and less than three miles (4.8 kilometers) away, police outside a federal courthouse shot a protester who was wearing a black tactical vest and armed with two handguns and a rifle. Police said the man was shot as he reached for a firearm.

In other violence around the country, four officers were shot and wounded in Missouri and others in New York were hurt when a car plowed into a line of police.

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On Monday night, as protests started to dwindle in St. Louis, four officers standing in a line were shot and injured when someone opened fire. All four were expected to recover. In the same city several hours later, police said four officers in a marked police car were fired on by men in a car.

Police in Buffalo, New York, said an SUV broke through a police blockade at a protest and ran over a state trooper, breaking his leg and shattering his pelvis. Another trooper and a Buffalo police officer were also hit by the vehicle and treated for minor injuries.

In Madison, Wisconsin, police Chief Vic Wahl said police officers were struck with rocks and projectiles.

Over the weekend, police in Los Angeles reported rocks and other objects rained down on police at a demonstration near an outdoor mall, leaving one officer with a fractured skull. In Oakland, California, violence Friday night left 13 officers injured and a federal officer was fatally shot from an unidentified vehicle while providing security at a courthouse during a protest. Dave Patrick Underwood, 53, died and another officer was critically wounded, authorities said.

Lombardo said officers in Las Vegas were being hit by rocks and bottles when a shot rang out and the officer, Shay Kellin Mikalonis, went down on the casino-lined Las Vegas Strip.

Police said Mikalonis, a Las Vegas police officer for four years, was shot from across the street and 20-year-old Edgar Samaniego of Las Vegas was identified by video before he was later arrested on suspicion of the shooting.

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