Bar robbery suspect dies after police officers use Taser
By FRANCIS McCABE and DAVID KIHARA REVIEW-JOURNAL A 37-year-old Las Vegas man accused of robbing a bar died early Thursday after Las Vegas police shocked him with a Taser. The death is the third one this year to occur after police used a Taser on a suspect and the sixth such death since the Metropolitan Police Department began using the devices as an alternative to lethal force more than two years ago. Advertisement
Officers were called at 2:05 a.m. on a report of an armed robbery at the Sly Fox Lounge, at 3266 Las Vegas Boulevard North, near Cheyenne Avenue. Initial reports indicated the robber was armed with a handgun, according to a statement released by the Police Department's investigative services division, As officers arrived, they noticed a man who fit the description of the robber walking through a desert area near the bar, the statement said. Family members identified the man as James Lewis.
The man began to run, heading toward an apartment complex, the statement said. "As the officers pursued the suspect ... he abruptly stopped running, turned to face the officers, and assumed a fighting stance," according to the statement. Police said the man refused to surrender, and an officer fired his Taser, hitting the man in the chest. "The device appeared to have no effect on the suspect, who pulled the probes from his clothing and began to violently attack the officers," according to the statement. An officer was hit in the face and bitten on a finger by the man, police said.
A second officer then fired his Taser, and again the device had no effect on the man, police said. A third officer arrived, and after a two-minute struggle, the man was handcuffed.
"The officers then sat the suspect upright, at which time he began to have difficulty breathing. The officers immediately called for paramedics," according to the statement. The man was taken to North Vista Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:31 a.m., police said.
Police added that the man had a lengthy arrest history.
More than 30 of Lewis' relatives gathered Thursday at a family member's residence about a block from where the incident occurred. "I feel bad because the police didn't have to do what they did to him," said Lewis' sister, Katherine Lewis, 42. "He would get himself into some bad situations, but my brother's not a bad person."
According to court and jail records, James Lewis pleaded guilty in 2004 to one count of burglary. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to one count each of burglary and evading a police officer. According to jail records, he was 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed 260 pounds.
He was a father of five and a former Clark High School student. He was described as funny and gregarious.
His nephew, Perignon Johnson, 20, said he went to North Vista Hospital after the incident and saw his uncle's body. He said the body had one shoe missing, blood around his face and a black eye.
"It's wrong," he said.
Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy said the bartender and at least one witness from the bar identified James Lewis as the robber. Police recovered a broken plastic toy gun where he was arrested, McCurdy said. The toy looked real enough that the bartender thought it was a real gun, McCurdy said. Lewis got $100 and a bottle of Courvoisier liquor in the robbery, McCurdy and a bartender at the Sly Fox Lounge said. This year, police have used Tasers 352 times.
"We've seen where it works well in cases and have had more successes," McCurdy said. Autopsies into Taser-related deaths typically do not find that the Taser was the sole cause of death, he said. But the family members said they were seeking more information about how Lewis died.
"They didn't need to do that to him," said Andre'z Williams, his 12-year-old niece.
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