1. Part I

    Always Justified

    Las Vegas police shoot often but seldom are disciplined.

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  2. Part II

    142 Dead, and Rising

    Many of the 378 shootings could have been avoided.

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  3. Part III

    Quick to Shoot, Slow to Change

    Las Vegas police are slow to deal with problems.

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  4. Part IV

    Broken System, Shattered Lives

    At every step, the inquest system protects police.

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  5. Part V

    Better Ways

    What Las Vegas can learn from other police departments.

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Part I: Always Justified

Always Justified: Police shootings subject of investigative series beginning today

They serve and protect. And sometimes they shoot and kill.

Las Vegas Valley police have been involved in 378 shootings since 1990, 142 of them fatal. One agency alone, the Metropolitan Police Department, was responsible for 310 shootings and 115 deaths.

Dozens of those shootings were unavoidable -- some even heroic. Others could have been prevented. All are presented in a five-part special report that begins today.

In the first installment of the series, the Review-Journal spotlights a troubled former Las Vegas police officer involved in three deadly shootings, each more peculiar than the last.

The strange career of officer George "Gregg" Pease illustrates the workings of a police department that is slow to get rid of problem cops and is slower still to embrace reforms that would help protect both officers and the public they serve.

Faces of the Dead

Since 1990, police in the Las Vegas Valley have killed 142 people in 378 officer-involved shootings. Clark County coroner's inquest juries cleared the officers of wrongdoing in all 142 deaths, but many could have been avoided and some remain highly controversial. In an unprecedented research project, the Las Vegas Review-Journal obtained all the available public records on all fatal and non-fatal shootings. This gallery covers the 142 dead.

Friday, May 25, 2012
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