Graphic body camera footage, along with the audio of a desperate 911 call placed by a 6-year-old Nevada boy, show how the fatal police shooting of the boy’s mother unfolded last month.
Henderson police officers were called just after noon Oct. 21 to the Equestrian on Eastern Apartments, where the boy, who had called for help, was found bleeding from multiple stab wounds. In a video statement released Thursday, authorities said the boy was stabbed 25 times.
Images of a blood-soaked green Minecraft T-shirt he wore during the attack were released, arrow stickers showing each spot where the knife blade entered the boy’s body.
His mother, Claudia Nadia Rodriguez, 37, was fatally shot by police at the scene. The Clark County coroner said Rodriguez died of a gunshot wound to the head.
Her son was taken to University Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery. He is expected to recover, police said.
The boy's father, Willie Brandon Jr., told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the day after the stabbing that his son was doing well. He declined to comment further on the attack.
"The City of Henderson Police Department recognizes that this tragedy will have lasting effects on everyone involved," the police statement released Thursday said. "We would also like to remind everyone that this is an ongoing investigation and the facts and circumstances as we now know them may change as information becomes available."
‘My mom is trying to kill me’
The audio of the 911 call, which was released Thursday by Henderson police officials, begins with the Rodriguez giving a dispatcher a garbled address. Her son can be heard crying in the background.
As the dispatcher attempts to ask what the nature of the emergency is, the boy speaks up.
“My mom is trying to kill me,” the weeping boy says.
Rodriguez also speaks.
“Yes, they’re trying to kill each other. They’re making us do it,” she says.
Rodriguez gives the woman her apartment number, but not an accurate street address. As the dispatcher attempts to get a proper location from her, Rodriguez makes another chilling statement.
“We got to kill each other,” she says. “Going out.”
The dispatcher eventually gets the name of the apartment complex -- Equestrian -- out of Rodriguez, and when she asks the caller’s name, it appears that she responds, “Nadia.”
Meanwhile, Rodriguez’s young son begs for help.
“911, help me, she’s trying to …,” the boy says.
As his words trail off, he begins screaming in terror.
“Please don’t hurt me! Please! Don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me! Please,” he pleads.
Listen to 911 audio and watch body camera footage from the Henderson Police Department below. Warning: The footage includes graphic language and images that may be disturbing to some readers.
He again appears to beg the dispatcher for help before turning his attention back to his mother.
“Mommy, don’t!” he cries.
Rodriguez calmly tells the dispatcher someone is “making (her) kill each other” before the line goes dead. The dispatcher attempts to redial Rodriguez’s number, but no one picks up the phone.
The body camera footage released by Henderson police officials begins with the camera worn by the first responding officer. As he knocks on the family’s apartment door, a second officer is seen at the bottom of the stairs leading to the apartment.
The young boy, shirtless and covered in blood, answers the door.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, oh (expletive),” the officer says as he grabs the boy by the arm and pulls him away from the apartment door.
“Get medical,” he calls to his partner at the foot of the stairs.
He then pulls his handgun and calls into the apartment: “What’s going on?”
Credit: Henderson Police Department
Credit: Henderson Police Department
The woman begins screaming at the officer, who appears to holster his weapon before a struggle with Rodriguez begins. Rodriguez, who appears to be naked, keeps arguing and screaming.
“You got to kill me,” she tells the officer, who is struggling to hold onto Rodriguez’s legs as she appears to lie on the floor, flailing at him.
As the officer continues to struggle with Rodriguez, a gun suddenly appears in her left hand.
“She’s got my gun! She’s got my gun!” the officer yells to his partner.
He struggles with Rodriguez for his weapon as the second officer enters the apartment. A few seconds later, several gunshots are heard.
According to Henderson police officials, one of those shots came from the first officer’s service weapon, which was fired by Rodriguez. The other two came from the second officer’s handgun.
The second officer’s body camera shows the scene from a different angle.
After Rodriguez’s 6-year-old son is pulled from the apartment, he can be seen wandering down the breezeway of the apartment complex. After the second officer hurries upstairs to help his partner, the boy returns to the doorway.
The second officer has the boy sit on the ground due to his injuries.
Credit: Henderson Police Department
Credit: Henderson Police Department
It is at this point in the confrontation that the first officer loses his weapon to Rodriguez. The second officer hurries into the apartment to back up his partner, at which point his body camera footage gets fuzzy.
Multiple shots are heard before the officer puts in a call on his police radio.
“Shots fired. Shots fired,” the man says.
The exact sequence of shots, as well as the moment Rodriguez was fatally wounded, could not be seen on the footage, which briefly becomes pixelated and full of static.
Her young son was apparently sitting directly outside the apartment door when his mother was shot. She died a short time later at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, according to the Review-Journal.
Two days after the shooting, Henderson police officials identified the officers as Edward Little and Patrick McCarrick. Little is an 11-year veteran of the force, while McCarrick joined the force in January 2016.
It was not clear which of the officers shot and killed Rodriguez.
Both officers, who are assigned to the department's Field Operations Bureau, were placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the internal investigation into Rodriguez's death.
A history of domestic violence
Clark County District Court records show Rodriguez and Brandon were involved in a contentious custody battle in 2017 over their son. A Department of Family Services report obtained by the Review-Journal shows that Rodriguez had been on their radar for the past two years.
The department received seven referrals about Rodriguez's and Brandon's son since June 2017. The most recent claim, made on May 14 of this year, alleged abuse of the boy, but the allegation could not be substantiated, the Review-Journal reported.
In Brandon’s February 2017 petition seeking primary custody of their son, he alleged that Rodriguez had a history of domestic violence and that she had abused, both physically and mentally, her two older children from a prior relationship, court documents obtained by the newspaper show.
Rodriguez told the court Brandon was making up allegations to take the boy away from her, the Review-Journal said.
As of December 2017, the parents had joint custody of the boy.
Rodriguez had been arrested four times since 2015 on domestic battery charges, Henderson city court records show.
She was convicted in January 2017 of a misdemeanor charge, the newspaper reported.
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