Early on Tuesday, November 12, Brandon Durham, a 43-year-old resident of vegasmade a desperate call for help to 911 from his home in the 6900 block of Wine River Drive. Taking refuge with his 15-year-old daughter, the citizen informed the authorities that an intruder had broken into his home.
In an audio broadcast by local television KVUU-TV, You can hear him imploring dispatchers to send help as soon as possible. But, what began as a plea for help culminated in an unexpected tragedy when the officer Alexander Bookman fatally shot Durham while responding to the call.
In body camera footage released by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police (LVMPD), according to The Associated Press (AP), you can see how Agent Bookman yells at them to drop a knife before firing a bullet. Subsequently, both the 43-year-old man and the intruder fall to the ground before the officer approaches and fires five more bullets while standing over them both.
Durham and the intruder knew each other. The latter was arrested and charged with burglary and assault, as confirmed by Deputy Sheriff Dori Koren.
On the other hand, the general counsel of the union that represents the city’s police officers, David Roger, explained in a statement issued on November 23 that “while Mr. Durham’s death is tragic,” Officer Bookman He was not to blame for anything, because he was only “doing his job and had no intention of committing a crime,” stating in turn that “the person responsible for Mr. Durham’s death is in custody.”
“Mr. Durham was not threatening anyone. There is no justification for the use of force against him,” declared Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who represents the family of the deceased, according to local newspaper reports. Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Merritt admitted to believing that an arrest warrant for Bookman should “immediately be issued” and that a grand jury “should return a murder indictment” against the officer.
Given this situation, the victim’s loved ones requested that Officer Bookman be fired and charged for the shooting.
Koren noted during a press conference cited by the newspaper that only “fragments” of the video recorded by Bookman’s body camera were published, which “appear intentionally designed to obscure information about the caller, being the victim.
A key element that came to light during the Durham case was the testimony of Alejandra Boudreaux, the intruder who had entered the home. She confessed to having entered the house with the intention of causing a “suicide by police force.”
This phenomenon, in which a person seeks to die at the hands of the authorities, was indicated as his motivation when he confronted Durham with a knife in his hand, according to reports. Las Vegas Review-Journal.
In the arrest report, cited by the local media, Boudreaux expressed that he wanted to “die in front of Durham” and that his objective was to destabilize him emotionally by forcing him to witness the scene.
His confession details that he had carefully planned the attack: after attempting to leave the city following a personal conflict with Durham, he returned to the house, grabbed a knife from the kitchen and simulated the intention of stabbing him to provoke a lethal response from the police.
Police later confirmed to the Las Vegas newspaper that Boudreaux admitted obtaining the knives to commit suicide in front of the homeowner “through police force” after threatening him.
