Lawyer: Inmate Was Cuffed When Guard Killed Him

2 Nevada inmates had hands behind back when guard shot them
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 25, 2015 11:00 PM CDT
Updated Mar 26, 2015 1:00 AM CDT
Lawyer: Nevada Guard Shot 2 Cuffed Inmates
This undated photo provided by the Nevada Department of Corrections shows Carlos Manuel Perez Jr., 28.   (AP Photo/Nevada Department of Corrections)

A Nevada prison inmate was handcuffed when he was shot and killed by a guard last November, according to a lawyer who says her client was wounded in the same shooting but survived. Carlos Manuel Perez Jr. was slain with his hands cuffed behind his back, attorney Alexis Plunkett says. Inmate Andrew Jay Arevalo was also handcuffed and "miraculously survived three shotgun blasts to the face. This is what I clearly consider to be an excessive use of force," Plunkett writes in an email to the AP. She says she plans to sue the guard, prison officials, and the state over the "terribly tragic and completely unnecessary shooting."

Clark County Coroner Michael Murphy said yesterday he ruled Perez's death a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds. He noted his ruling meant Perez, 28, died at the hands of another person and did not establish fault. Nevada prisons chief Greg Cox said in a statement issued after the coroner's ruling became public that Arevalo and Perez were fighting when a guard at High Desert State Prison opened fire. He didn't mention handcuffs and didn't identify the guard, but he said the shooter was one of three correctional officers who remain on administrative leave pending completion of a Nevada Investigation Division report and a review by the state attorney general's office. (More Nevada stories.)

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