Henry Prendes

Las Vegas Review-Journal

February 2, 2006

‘OUR WORST NIGHTMARE’: LV officer slain in gun battle

Gunman killed, another officer injured in a shootout.

What was to have been a proud day for the Metropolitan Police Department on Wednesday ended as one of its darkest. Fourteen-year police veteran Sgt. Henry Prendes was shot and killed during a domestic violence call, becoming the first Las Vegas police officer in 17 years to be slain in the line of duty. “I can tell you, for the men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department this is a very sad day,” Sheriff Bill Young said. “It’s our worst nightmare as an agency.” Prendes, 37, was ambushed as he approached the front door of a house in southwest Las Vegas. The gunman then held police at bay by firing more than 50 rounds from a semiautomatic assault rifle before officers shot and killed him, Young said. A second officer was shot in the leg during the gun battle. Police identified the gunman as Amir Rashid Crump, 21, an aspiring Las Vegas rapper who went by the nickname “Trajik.”

The incident began about 1:20 p.m., just as Young was about to start an awards ceremony at the Clark County Commission chambers. Young told the audience of police officers and their families that he had to leave and explained that an officer had been shot. He didn’t know that Prendes was dead until he was en route to University Medical Center.

Police had responded to the home at 8336 Feather Duster Court, near Durango Drive and the Las Vegas Beltway, after several 911 calls about a man beating a woman with a stick in the front yard and breaking windows on vehicles and the house. Prendes and several officers arrived and found the woman, who was Crump’s girlfriend. Her mother and her brother were with her. Crump had gone inside the home. Prendes “cautiously approached” the door when he was met with gunfire, Young said. An officer nearby saw Prendes “reeling out of the house, saying, ‘I’m hit,’ ” Young said.

Prendes fell on the sidewalk, but other officers could not reach him because Crump continued firing with his gun, which was similar to an AK-47, Young said. Crump fired about 50 rounds and kept the officers pinned behind cars, walls and whatever cover they could find, he said. He went upstairs and fired down upon the officers, he said…

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