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Jose Antonio Oyuela-Palma

Age : 49

Gender : Male

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 09/21/2021

Location : 3000 block of East Charleston Boulevard

City : Henderson

County : Clark

State : Nevada

Agency : Henderson Police Department; Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

Officer(s) :Logan Tillmon; Mark Street

Cause of Death : Gunshot

Event : Killed by police during armed disturbance

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 09/21/2021, Henderson Police Department SWAT officers Logan Tillmon and Mark Street shot and killed 49-year-old Jose Oyuela-Palma following an approximately two-hour barricade at an apartment complex in the 3000 block of East Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas. Henderson SWAT was operating outside its city through a mutual-aid request from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. A later Clark County District Attorney review identified both shooting officers and reconstructed the encounter in substantially greater detail.
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The encounter began at approximately 2:09 p.m. when a Pep Boys employee called 911 and reported that Oyuela-Palma was pointing a handgun at him and other people from a second-floor apartment balcony. LVMPD officers responded and attempted to communicate with Oyuela-Palma.
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Police alleged that Oyuela-Palma repeatedly moved in and out of the apartment while armed and pointed the handgun toward civilians outside. Officers evacuated or moved civilians away from the immediate area and established containment around the apartment.
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The later investigation documented strong evidence that Oyuela-Palma was experiencing a mental health crisis. His family told investigators that he had been behaving erratically, was suicidal and had significant mental health problems. During the barricade, police also received information that he had expressed suicidal intentions.
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LVMPD requested assistance from the Henderson Police Department SWAT team. Henderson SWAT officers, including Tillmon and Street, responded to the Las Vegas apartment complex and took tactical positions while negotiators continued attempting to persuade Oyuela-Palma to surrender.
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Police alleged that Oyuela-Palma repeatedly appeared on the apartment balcony carrying the handgun. Officers continued communicating with him and ordered him to put down the weapon.
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At approximately 4:29 p.m., police alleged that Oyuela-Palma came onto the balcony and pointed the handgun toward officers positioned below. Henderson SWAT officers Logan Tillmon and Mark Street then fired their rifles at Oyuela-Palma, striking him multiple times and killing him.
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Investigators recovered a handgun associated with Oyuela-Palma. The Clark County District Attorney later reviewed the evidence and concluded that Tillmon and Street reasonably believed Oyuela-Palma presented an imminent threat when they fired. Prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against either officer.
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There is an important evidentiary limitation in this case. There is no video recording of the actual fatal shooting by Tillmon and Street. Although LVMPD patrol officers used body cameras, Henderson SWAT personnel were not equipped in a manner that produced video of the fatal confrontation. The later public fact-finding review therefore had to reconstruct the precise moment of the shooting through officer statements, other recordings, witness evidence and physical evidence.
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Oyuela-Palma's family subsequently filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the City of Henderson, Henderson Police Department, LVMPD, Logan Tillmon and Mark Street arising from his death. The plaintiffs included members of Oyuela-Palma's family and representatives of his estate. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada in 2023.
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The federal lawsuit directly named Tillmon and Street, meaning the officers' identities and conduct were ultimately subjected to civil litigation rather than ending with the police and prosecutor reviews. In September 2024, the parties stipulated to dismiss the entire case with prejudice, with each side bearing its own attorney fees, costs and expenses. The public dismissal order does not state the terms of any agreement between the parties.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Logan Tillmon and Mark Street were the Henderson SWAT officers who fired the fatal shots at Oyuela-Palma. Henderson Police publicly identified both officers two days after the killing, and the Clark County District Attorney's later use-of-force report independently confirmed that both discharged their weapons.
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The later prosecutorial review concluded there was no factual or legal basis for criminal charges against either Tillmon or Street.
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Both Tillmon and Street were subsequently named personally as defendants in the Oyuela-Palma family's federal civil-rights litigation. The City of Henderson/Henderson Police Department and LVMPD were also defendants. The litigation remained pending until the parties stipulated to dismissal with prejudice in September 2024.
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The Henderson Police Department itself had serious documented disciplinary and accountability problems at the time Oyuela-Palma was killed. A major Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation published only five months before the shooting found Henderson officers with years of sustained complaints, allegations of sexual misconduct and even criminal arrests who remained employed and, in some cases, were promoted. One officer examined by the newspaper had faced approximately 50 misconduct allegations, including nearly a dozen sustained findings, and had violated use-of-force rules, threatened a person while serving a warrant and lied in a police report.
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The department's leadership subsequently became embroiled in its own turmoil. Chief Thedrick Andres eventually announced his retirement after Henderson's police officer and supervisor associations overwhelmingly voted no confidence in him. The unions accused Andres of management problems and specifically complained that he implemented a new use-of-force policy without adequate officer input or training.
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Those departmental problems do not establish that Tillmon or Street acted unlawfully in this shooting. They do provide relevant context for a killing in which two Henderson SWAT officers killed a suicidal man experiencing a mental health crisis, no video captured the fatal shooting itself, and the man's family later brought a federal civil-rights action against both shooters and the involved police agencies.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/suspect-pointed-gun-at-officers-before-swat-shot-him-henderson-police-say/
https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/fact-finding-review-of-deadly-henderson-police-shooting-in-2021/
https://news3lv.com/news/local/police-suspect-killed-by-henderson-officers-was-erratic-pointed-gun-at-officers
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/man-fatally-shot-by-henderson-police-in-barricade-identified-2446319/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/police-say-man-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-was-suicidal-2466299/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/shootings/no-video-of-fatal-shooting-by-swat-officers-henderson-police-say-2739654/
https://apnews.com/article/police-shootings-las-vegas-7c151cf3760e860585c46535d3b8fcc2
https://www.ktnv.com/news/clark-county-holds-fact-finding-review-in-officer-involved-death-of-49-year-old-man
https://breaking911.com/suspect-on-balcony-pointed-gun-at-officers-before-swat-fatally-shot-him/
https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/henderson-metro-police-investigate-second-officer-involved-shooting/
https://www.cityofhenderson.com/Home/Components/News/News/229/567
https://www.cityofhenderson.com/Home/Components/News/News/231/
https://webfiles.clarkcountynv.gov/Legal%20Analysis%20Surrounding%20the%20Death%20of%20Jose%20Oyuela-Palma%20September%2021%2C%202021%20%282%29.pdf
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/nevada/nvdce/2%3A2023cv00224/160766/44/
https://www.reviewjournal.com/investigations/henderson-officers-with-years-of-misconduct-kept-working-confidential-records-reveal-why-2333394/