A man who was fatally shot by Las Vegas police after calling 911 during a home invasion pleaded for officers to arrive “ASAP,” fearing that a trespasser was “going to kill everybody.”
In recorded audio of the November 12 emergency call first obtained by CNN affiliate KVVU, the victim, Brandon Durham, 43, told a police dispatcher that he feared for his life after hearing what he described as sounds of guns fired around the front and side of his home.
In a hushed voice, Durham responded to the dispatcher’s questions for more than seven minutes as he frantically reacted to noises coming from outside. Halfway through the call, he said that he might know who the trespasser was.
“They’re inside. They’re coming. They’re trying to blow up the house with gas,” Durham said on the line just moments before he was caught in a confrontation with the trespasser and then shot by police.
Body-worn camera footage from responding officers released by police showed Durham and Alejandra Boudreaux – who later told authorities she was in a casual relationship with Durham – in a physical struggle seconds before Durham was shot.
The audio call captured the six rounds that were fired at Durham by police officer Alexander Bookman and the shrilling cries from another person in the house.
In an additional 911 call shortly before police arrived, a neighbor of Durham’s tells another dispatcher that someone outside Durham’s house “destroyed the top of his car” outside and was using bricks to smash open the house’s front entrance. The neighbor also shared details about the trespasser’s outfit, saying that they wore a hoodie, beanie and dark pants.
The suspected trespasser, Boudreaux, 31, faces multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon, home invasion with a deadly weapon, domestic violence and child abuse.
In an interview with police, Boudreaux admitted to feeling suicidal in the days leading up to the home invasion and hoped that she would’ve been shot and killed by police, according to the arrest report.
Boudreaux is being held in Clark County jail and will appear before a judge on November 25. CNN is working to identify whether Boudreaux has legal representation.
Police accountability
The incident is the 13th shooting this year to involve a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer and the eighth that has led to a fatality, authorities said.
Durham’s family has called for Bookman, the responding officer, to be arrested, but an attorney for the officer said his client committed no crime. Bookman is currently placed on paid administrative leave pending the results of an internal investigation that authorities said could take months.
Police also made note of a separate 911 call to Durham’s house the day before Durham was shot, stating in an arrest report that during the early hours of November 11, “Durham called police and Boudreaux agreed to leave the house.”
In an interview with CNN’s Sara Sidner Thursday, Durham’s family lawyer Lee Merritt said that the prior call should’ve familiarized police officers with all the parties involved.
“So they would have been familiar with the actors. That makes this 10 times worse,” Merritt said, stating that police acted with carelessness and negligence.
“Not only did they receive a description of the intruder that night—someone wearing a ski mask, someone wearing a hoodie— not only did they have a description of Brandon himself, Mr. Durham himself … but it seems that the law enforcement officers who responded that night were already familiar with these actors and that makes the firing on the homeowner in their home when they made a 911 call that much less tolerable,” Merritt said.
