54 year old James Todora pulled out his pistol and aimed it at a Las Vegas police officers head after being pulled over for a broken brake light on his Jeep Cherokee.
After being pulled over Todora became incredibly aggravated, he jumped out of the car and began to scream at officer Luna. Officer Luna then told Todora to return back into his car and he soon obeyed Luna’s orders. But to Luna’s surprise Todora mentioned that he had a pistol sitting in his car. This is when the confrontation and shooting broke out.
It wasn’t long before that two more officers arrived at the scene, noticing that Todora’s behaviors were threatening to their fellow officer. Officer Luna quickly changed his order and told Todora to step out of the vehicle hoping to separate Todora from the rifle that he stated was in the back seat of his car.
In the process of trying to get Todora out of the car, he became even more angry and then threatened to shoot himself. He leaned over to the passenger side of the car and grabbed a rifle that was hidden underneath a jacket on the chair. After a struggle between Luna and Todora, Todora broke free and aimed the pistol at Luna’s head and pulled the trigger. Luckily for Luna the loaded gun did not have a round in that chamber and he was unharmed and able to get away.
Todora then proceeded to pull the trigger again, the second time the gun fired. During all of the commotion one of the officers who arrived at the scene fired three shots at Todora, which ended his life. It wasn’t until after everything had died down that the officers realized that one of their fellow officers had been hit by a bullet in the open fire. He was rushed to the hospital for inguries that turned out to be not life threatening.
It was later brought to attention that Todora was using “spice” which is a term that is most commonly known as the dangerous synthetic drugs
that generally cause erratic behavior and medical episodes. This likely explained the unclear decision making Todora made at the time of the shooting.
On Friday, May 20, there was the hearing that took place at the Clark County Government Center. Michael A. Troiano was the Ombudsmen representing the deceased, his family, as well as the public.