Parents of Jorge Gomez told jurors yesterday that the death of their 25-year-old son in a 2020 police shooting left them with “a hole inside,” as they described how the family has tried to live since that night. Their testimony came as the federal civil case over Gomez’s killing moved into a critical phase where jurors must weigh sharply conflicting accounts of what happened outside the federal courthouse.
The wrongful-death suit names the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and several officers who fired during protests on June 1, 2020, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Opening statements and witness testimony this week have focused on surveillance and bystander videos and on whether Gomez actually leveled a rifle at officers before they shot him.
Officers’ Account
Officers on the scene testified they believed Gomez pointed a rifle at them and that they fired in rapid succession; Metro has said the four officers discharged a combined 19 rounds and that the involved officers were not wearing body-worn cameras, as reported by FOX5 Las Vegas. Defense lawyers told jurors those were split-second decisions made amid confusion after an officer had been shot earlier near Circus Circus.
Family And Witnesses Dispute Officers’ Story
The Gomez family has released multiple surveillance clips and witnesses who testified in court say the video does not show him leveling a weapon, a discrepancy highlighted in reporting by Nevada Current. Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue that a non-lethal bean‑bag shotgun round fired at Gomez earlier that night sent him running into the line of fire, and jurors must parse limited camera angles and bystander footage because the shooting officers lacked body cameras.
What Jurors Must Decide
The federal lawsuit accuses Metro and the officers of using excessive, unconstitutional force; jurors will be asked to decide whether the officers’ use of deadly force was reasonable under the circumstances, as per a report by the Las Vegas Review‑Journal. Clark County prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges after a fact-finding review, leaving this civil trial as the primary public forum for testing the competing accounts.
Broader Questions About Training And Transparency…