Police stand in formation at the entrance to Fremont Street Experience Monday, June 1, 2020, in downtown Las Vegas. Police were present for a community protest over the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died in police custody on Memorial Day.
LAS VEGAS — A police officer was hospitalized on life support after being shot during a protest on the Las Vegas Strip and a man with multiple firearms was fatally shot in a separate overnight encounter with law enforcement officers outside a federal building, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Tuesday.
The wounded officer was in grave condition and a suspect in the late Monday night shooting was taken into custody in the shooting late Monday night. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said.
Lombardo said the officer was shot as bottles and rocks were thrown at police who were trying to disperse a crowd outside the Circus Circus hotel and casino.
"Officers were attempting to get some of the protesters in custody when a shot rang out, our officer went down," Lombardo told reporters.
In a separate incident, police and federal officers posted outside the federal building late Monday shot a man several times as he reached for a firearm, Lombardo said. The man, who died, appeared to be wearing body armor and had multiple firearms.
Crowds have been protesting for days in Las Vegas and across the country over the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, who was seen on video pleading that he couldn't breathe with a white police officer pressing his knee into his neck for several minutes before he stopped moving.
Lombardo could not confirm that the man shot by officers was involved in the protest but said that the location of the shooting "would lead one to believe that he was."
"He was obviously an open carry individual," Lombardo said.
The shooting of the officer and of the man with body armor carrying firearms were under investigation, Lombardo said.
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