Two Officers Shot in Las Vegas

Tensions between the police and the public they serve can lead to tragedy.  Two Las Vegas police officers paid with their lives when a pair of individuals acted on anti-police rhetoric. In a tragic incident, the two officers were killed by a couple who viewed them as “oppressors.”

The two officers were at a local Las Vegas pizza restaurant on a Sunday afternoon when the violent act occurred.  Igor Soldo and Alyn Beck were the victims of an ambush, which was perpetrated by a couple with a “Don’t Tread on Me”flag and a Nazi Swastika.  Early investigations indicated the couple, Jerad and Amanda Miller, were not part of any organized white supremacist movement, but instead the couple felt the officers and the government are representative of the Nazis and were using the Swastika to represent the officers who they killed.

Officers Killed in Murder Suicide

The attack on the two officers began at 11:20 AM.  Witnesses in the pizza restaurant where the incident took place indicated that they initially believed that Jerad Miller had entered the restaurant peacefully and was getting up to get a drink, since Miller initially walked past the officers.  However, Miller turned around and opened fire on one of the two police officers. The action was unprovoked.  Jerad Miller shot both of the officers, although his wife also shot at Beck.

Once the police officers had been killed, the couple took the officer’s guns and their ammunition.  When they left the restaurant, they told a man they had passed by to tell the police they had just killed two officers inside of CiCi’s and that it was a revolution.

In addition to taking the officers’ guns, the Millers also had hundreds of rounds of ammunition they had purchased themselves, which they were carrying with them in their backpacks when they were apprehended by police. The volume of the ammunition suggests they were preparing for a long gun battle at some point in the future.  A review of their social media posts and other communications suggested they were interested in militias.

The victims were targeted at random and did not have a connection to the alleged perpetrators.  After shooting the officers in the back of the head, the couple pinned a note to one of the officer’s body.  Like the statement they made when leaving the restaurant, the note they pinned to the officer also indicated that their actions were intended to be the start of a revolution.

Following the incident, the couple fled the pizza restaurant where the officers had been killed and went into a nearby Wal-Mart store.  One bystander, Joseph Wilcox, was killed at the store after the 31-year-old Wilcox attempted to stop the couple using his concealed weapon.  At the time of his death, Wilcox was pursuing Jared Miller to try to stop him and he did not realize that Amanda Miller was also in the store and was with Jerad. Amanda shot Wilcox as Wilcox pursued Jerad.

Amanda and Jerad then barricaded themselves inside of the Wal-Mart after shooting Wilcox .  When law enforcement arrived, the couple engaged in a brief firefight with the officers.  The wife then repeatedly shot her husband as police closed in on the two, before finally shooting herself.

A friend who the couple had been staying with indicated she had seen the Millers leaving her home that day with weapons but did not call the police.  While the Millers had mentioned their intentions to attack both to the friend as well as to another neighbor, no one spoke up before the incident because they thought it was just crazy talk.

Both of the officers who were killed in the incident were married with children.  The attack ultimately resulted in five deaths, including the officers, the couple, and Joseph Wilcox at Wal-Mart.