LAS VEGAS (AP) - A 20-year-old Los Angeles man who was shot dead by Bureau of Land Management rangers on a highway outside Las Vegas made threats to kill and tried to grab a rifle from a Nevada Highway Patrol vehicle, federal officials said Thursday.
The BLM rangers used pepper spray, several Taser shots and a baton, and physically prevented D’Andre Berghardt Jr. from trying to enter two witnesses’ vehicles before he climbed into the idling highway patrol SUV on State Route 159 near Red Rock Canyon, the BLM said in a statement.
The account represented the first comment by the BLM since the fatal confrontation about noon last Friday.
“Mr. Berghardt threatened to shoot the officers and entered the running NHP cruiser where he reached for the trooper’s duty rifle contained in a firearms safety rack,” the bureau statement said.
The two rangers “engaged Mr. Berghardt with gunfire,” it said.
The slaying on the highway about 20 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip has drawn wide attention after dramatic witness cellphone video was obtained and posted online by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
About 10 apparent gunshots can be heard at a crucial point of the nearly seven-minute recording.
The rangers involved in the shooting weren’t identified by name in the statement. One was described as having 17 years of law enforcement experience, the other with more than nine years.
BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton said both were on paid leave pending an agency professional responsibility review.
The state trooper, Lucas Schwarzrock, also was on paid leave pending his department’s review of the shooting.
NHP officials said Wednesday that Schwarzrock, a five-year department veteran, didn’t fire his weapon.
The BLM said the rangers stopped Berghardt on the highway after several people reported that he was walking in and out of traffic, and two passing bicyclists “expressed fear for themselves and the safety of others in the area.”
Berghardt was supposed to be visiting a relative in Las Vegas, but passers-by said they saw him walking on the paved shoulder of the highway with a rolling suitcase, a backpack and a bedroll before the rangers arrived.
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