'I don't think I'll be alive by then,' Las Vegas homeowner says on 911 call before police kill him
Nov 21, 2024
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) -- Imploring a Metro police dispatcher to "hurry the [expletive] up," a 10-minute-long 911 call obtained by the 8 News Now Investigators captures the harrowing moments where a man calls in an urgent threat of people "shooting at the house" before police officers kicked in the door and shot and killed him.
That caller, later identified as the homeowner, Brandon Durham, 43, of Las Vegas, died at the home on Tuesday, Nov. 12. Police said he was pronounced deceased at a hospital a short time thereafter.
RELATED: Las Vegas police shoot, kill man who called 911 during home invasion
Alejandra Boudreaux, 31, of Seattle, Washington, is accused of breaking into the home and attacking Durham, police said. In the seconds before the shooting, Durham and Boudreaux struggled over a knife, video from Metro police shows.
Brandon Durham, 43, was shot and killed by a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer after calling 911 during a home invasion. (Durham family)
"We've got to render aid to this person," a first responder tells another person on the call.
But in the moments before police came, the dispatcher was obtaining as many details as possible from Durham, many of them delivered in a low whisper and in sheer terror while he and his daughter were hiding, fearing for their lives.
Durham, while explaining the play-by-play of the home invasion, remarked to the dispatcher, who said police were on their way, "I don't think I'll be alive by then."
"They're trying to get in the house," Durham said shortly before saying, "They're inside. They're coming." The recording appears to contain audible slamming and thumping.
A moment later, Durham tells the dispatcher, "They're trying to blow up the house with gas."
Almost immediately after that, the audio recording captures a major commotion and Durham says little to nothing else before first responders can be heard speaking for the first time.
"Do you have gloves?" one responder is heard asking several times.
Another voice is heard screaming while the responders, presumably police, survey the aftermath.
"Where's the gun?" One responder soon asks.
That dispatcher, on the other end of Durham's call for the entire episode, is heard asking, "Hello? Can anyone hear me?"
Another caller reported the initial incident in real time, saying someone was at her neighbor's house "attacking his home with bricks." She told a dispatcher one person had broken his windows and corroborated the victim's description that the person was wearing a hoodie.
"Oh my gosh, he just got in the house," she said, adding that the person "broke through the window."
She also said they "destroyed the top of his car," and that "his windshield is a mess."
A still frame from police body camera video shows the incident that left Brandon Durham dead. (LVMPD)
8 News Now originally reported a Metro police officer — later identified as Alexander Bookman, 26 — shot and killed Durham after he called 911. Durham told a dispatcher that he was inside the home with his 15-year-old daughter. He said he was locking himself in the bathroom as the two people entered his home.
After the shooting, Boudreaux told police she broke into the home in an attempt for police to shoot and kill her, according to documents 8 News Now first obtained Monday.
RELATED: Las Vegas police officer who killed 911 caller was at same home hours earlier
Records the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Tuesday reveal officers were called to Durham’s home late on the evening of Nov. 10 — about 24 hours before the fatal shooting — for a disturbance. Durham, who was not home when he made the call around 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 10, told police his “ex-friend” named “Marie” refused to leave, according to documents. “Marie” is Boudreaux’s middle name, according to records.
Bookman arrived at the house around 12:11 a.m. At 12:40 a.m., police notes indicate Boudreaux “agreed to leave” and left for Harry Reid International Airport, records said. The officer who made the note that Boudreaux “packed up” and left was Bookman.