Police release details in death of man struck by patrol vehicle

What Las Vegas police said started out as a call about battery with a deadly weapon turned into a man stabbing a woman in a burning apartment, before he was run over by a patrol car.

Officials with the Metropolitan Police Department detailed Tuesday’s series of events at a press conference Friday.

With the woman trapped inside the northwest Las Vegas apartment on fire, responding officers ran over the man with a patrol car, and he stabbed himself while lying in a roadway where he died, police said.

An audio recording of a 911 call played at the news conference captured a citizen describing the stabbing and fire, while video from a police officer’s body worn camera showed the man stabbing his upper body with the 8-inch bladed knife.

In the video, neighbors could be heard yelling in a panic as flames raged in the second-floor apartment, south of The Lakes neighborhood.

Attempts to free the wounded woman and her crying dog inside failed, including from someone who climbed a ladder to reach the balcony but fell onto the pavement below, according to police.

The woman who died was identified as Janika Douglas, 42, by the coroner’s office on Friday.

The department used the brief conference to disclose details of the harrowing event of the officer using deadly force with his vehicle to run over and subdue the knife-wielding man, identified as Dannon Bryant, 43, in addition to tasing him as Bryant stabbed himself.

Bryant was declared dead by emergency crews at the scene on West Desert Inn Road near the burned apartment in the 8800 block of Canyon Rim Way.

Officer James Burt, 49, who has been with the department since 2006, was identified Thursday by Metro as the officer involved in the resulting fatal use of force.

Assistant Sheriff Jamie Prosser said the incident was first reported at 10:48 a.m. that day when a man called saying that “Bryant was battering a female on a second floor apartment balcony.”

The caller told police Bryant was stabbing the female victim and she was covered in blood, Prosser said.

The 911 call included a voice telling a dispatcher, “He’s stabbing her. He’s stabbing her.”

The person on the recording described smoking coming from the apartment and said: “He’s got a knife to his throat. … He’s cutting himself. … He’s stabbing her and cutting himself. There’s a big fire, the place is on fire.”

While officers drove to the scene, witnesses stated that Bryant had stabbed himself and the woman before leaping from the balcony and fleeing to Desert Inn, Prosser said.

“Officer Burt arrived and saw Bryant stumbling through traffic on Desert Inn Road west of El Capitan Way,” she said.

“Vehicles began to stop in the middle of the road as Bryant was walking towards them with a knife,” she said. “Officer Burt used his patrol vehicle to bump Bryant and subsequently Bryant fell to the ground and was run over by the vehicle.”

When Burt and another officer got out of the car, they ordered Bryant to drop the knife, but “Bryant immediately started to stab himself again, at which point Officer Burt discharged his electronic device and officers were able to remove the knife and take Bryant into custody while requesting medical,” Prosser said.

Bryant could be seen in the video sprawled on the road after the car drove over him and then rolling onto his back in reaction to the shock of the taser.

In one frame of the video, Bryant was on his stomach, apparently holding a knife in both of his hands while stabbing himself in the neck area.

Prosser showed a photo of the knife with a red handle and what resembled blood on the blade.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/police-release-details-in-death-of-man-struck-by-patrol-vehicle-2933313/

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