LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities provided new details about the sequence of events in the killings of two Las Vegas police officers in a restaurant and a shopper at a nearby Wal-Mart.
Las Vegas police say a married couple carried out the fatal shootings before killing themselves. Here's what Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill says happened late Sunday morning:
LUNCH BREAK TURNS DEADLY: At 11:22 a.m., Officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo are taking their lunch break at CiCi's Pizza when Jerad Miller comes inside, looks around and then goes back out. He re-enters with his wife, Amanda, and head toward the officers, who are seated in a booth. As the couple pass, Jerad Miller pulls a handgun and shoots Soldo once in the back of the head. He dies immediately. As Beck tries to react, Jerad Miller shoots him in the throat. Amanda Miller grabs her handgun, and the couple open fire on Beck.
With both officers dead, the Millers pull them from the booth onto the ground. They drape a yellow "Don't tread on me" flag over Beck's body along with a swastika. Jerad Miller then pins a note on Soldo that says, "This is the beginning of the revolution." The two gather the officers' weapons and ammunition and the backpacks of ammunition they brought along and head to a nearby Wal-Mart.
A SHOPPER'S CONFRONTATION: Minutes later, the Millers enter the store, and Jerad Miller fires a single shot, telling shoppers to get out and saying this is a revolution and police are on their way. Joseph Wilcox, 31, standing in line and armed with a concealed weapon, sees them and tells a friend he is going to confront them. He moves toward Jerad Miller, not realizing Amanda Miller is with him. As he starts to confront the man, Amanda Miller shoots him in the ribs.
SUSPECTS CORNERED: The Millers make their way to the back of the store. Two teams of police officers trained to respond to shootings arrive, one team entering from the front of the store and the other from the back and they fan out in formation. They trade gunfire with the couple, as the Millers move toward the automotive section. An officer takes shelter in a security office, where he and a Wal-Mart employee monitor surveillance cameras and relay information to the teams about the suspects' whereabouts.
As the officers close in, the Millers sit and lie on the ground, ready to further engage police. Jared Miller builds a barricade of items from the store around his wife. But instead of shooting at police, Amanda Miller, suffering a bullet wound, fatally shoots her husband. Then, she turns the gun on herself, ending the rampage.
EARLIER
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two police officers having lunch were fatally shot in a point-blank ambush by a man and woman, who then fled to a nearby Wal-Mart where they killed a third person and then themselves in an apparent suicide pact, authorities said.
One of the shooters yelled, "This is a revolution!" but a motive remains under investigation, Las Vegas police spokesman Larry Hadfield told The Associated Press.
Two Las Vegas Officers Killed in Restaurant Ambush; Shooters Carry Violence into Wal-Mart
The deadly rampage Sunday in the aging shopping center northeast of the Las Vegas Strip took place in a matter of minutes. Police were called at 11:22 a.m. to the pizzeria, where one of the officers was able to fire back at his assailants. It's unclear whether he hit them, Gillespie said.
Shots were reported five minutes later at a nearby Wal-Mart, where the shooters gunned down a person just inside the front door and exchanged gunfire with police before killing themselves, police said.
The female suspect shot the male suspect before killing herself, Gillespie said. The Wal-Mart victim's identity hasn't been confirmed, and the suspects' names haven't been released.
The attack at a CiCi's Pizza restaurant killed Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, who are both husbands and fathers.
"It's a tragic day," Sheriff Doug Gillespie said at a news conference Sunday. "But we still have a community to police, and we still have a community to protect. We will be out there doing it with our heads held high, but with an emptiness in our hearts."
For added safety, officers who normally work alone will be paired up with another officer for a time, Gillespie said.
Both officers were pronounced dead at University Medical Center. Beck had been with the department since 2001 and leaves behind a wife and three children. Soldo had been with the force since 2006 and is survived by a wife and baby, police said.
He was described as a good father and a "great guy" by his sister-in-law, Colleen Soldo of Beatrice, Nebraska. She said he attended high school in Lincoln, Nebraska, and previously worked as a corrections officer.
Sheree Burns, 48, told the Las Vegas Sun she was eating at the restaurant, seated just behind the two officers when a man came up to one of the officers and shot him in the head.
She said she ducked under her table but peeked up and saw the other officer being shot.
She said the man took an officer's handgun and the two attackers fled.
Pauline Pacheco was shopping at Wal-Mart when she saw the armed man and grabbed her father to escape, KLAS-TV reported.
Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the male suspect yelled "everyone get out" before shooting at Wal-Mart. The suspects then walked to the back of the store.
Wal-Mart employees and shoppers were taken to a nearby women's clothing store to be interviewed by police. The restaurant and Wal-Mart remained closed as detectives processed evidence. McMahill said the investigation is "very complex" because it involves more than 1,000 witnesses.
Sunday's killings come less than a year after the Las Vegas police department's most recent on-duty death. Officer David VanBuskirk died while rescuing a stranded hiker by helicopter on July 22, 2013.
The department has lost officers over the past decade in vehicle accidents and in an off-duty shooting, but the most recent on-duty shooting death happened Feb. 1, 2006, when Sgt. Henry Prendes was ambushed during a domestic violence call.
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Griffith reported from Reno.
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