William B. Scott
On July 10, 2010, Erik B.
Scott, a 1994 U.S. Military Academy at West Point graduate with an MBA from
Duke University, was shot to death by three Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
(“Metro”) officers in front of a Las Vegas, NV, Costco big-box store. While
many readers will recall that egregious, senseless murder, few know what followed: A
jaw-dropping cover-up more typical of the old Soviet Union than America.
To every man and woman,
who carries a firearm, the Erik Scott shooting is a chilling reminder that billion-dollar
companies, such as Costco, have irrational, secret, anti-gun policies that
literally kill their customers.
Erik, a Boston Scientific
cardiac pacemaker sales rep, was carrying a legally registered concealed
firearm, while he and his girlfriend were shopping at Costco-Summerlin in Las
Vegas. He also had a concealed-carry permit in his wallet, issued by the same
Metro police force that killed him.
When Erik squatted on the
floor to verify that three metal water bottles would fit into a soft-sided,
zip-up cooler, a Costco employee spotted Erik’s Kimber Ultra Carry .45-caliber semiautomatic in an inside-the-waistband
holster. A civil interchange with a Costco manager ensued, and Erik was told
that a Costco policy banned guns inside company stores—although there were no
signs to that effect posted outside or inside, and there’s no mention of a gun-ban
policy in the membership application. Erik calmly responded that his sidearm
was legal and that he had a concealed-carry weapon (CCW) permit on his person.
The manager never asked Erik to leave the store, and the two parted on good
terms, according to witnesses.
The Costco manager reassured
a plainclothes security guard, Shai Lierley, that Erik would be leaving soon.
For reasons known only to him, the young, cocky Lierley—defying management practices
and company policy—placed a 311 call to the local police, falsely claiming Erik
“had a gun and was acting erratic.” Thinking an armed madman was barricaded inside,
Metro cops rushed to the store in overwhelming force—15 police cruisers, a
helicopter, an incident-command team and an ambulance.
An inbound Metro
lieutenant suggested that Costco managers quietly evacuate the store. Unaware
that the evacuation had anything to do with him, Erik and his girlfriend calmly
walked out with the crowd, passing three Metro officers waiting at the entrance
and exit doors. Costco’s Shai Lierley identified Erik to an agitated, scared
Metro officer, William Mosher, who was clutching a semiautomatic, visibly
shaking and sweating profusely. Alarmed, Mosher spun around and immediately
yelled something, which even nearby cops failed to comprehend.
Erik turned to find a frightened,
obese cop shouting three conflicting commands. With his left hand, Erik lifted
his T-shirt to expose the Kimber, and repeated, "I am armed, I am
armed..." Witnesses said he moved his right elbow enough to expose the
Kimber. In his right hand, Erik held a BlackBerry cell phone.
Mosher instantly panicked
and fired two shots with a .45-caliber Glock 21. The cop’s first hollow-point slug
struck Erik in the heart; the second went through his right thigh, well below
his jeans’ front pocket.
Two other officers hesitated
a long beat, then fired another five rounds, all into Erik's back. Erik was
shot a total of seven times. The five that hit him in the back were fired after
he was on the ground, dying.
Based on a recording of
Lierley’s 311-call, we’ve confirmed that Mosher gave Erik three conflicting
commands and fired, all within two
seconds. Mosher then knelt on his victim’s back and handcuffed Erik’s
hands.
Costco had numerous
security cameras inside the store and at least four trained on the entrance,
where the lethal shooting took place. Violating department policies, Metro
detectives did NOT immediately seize the surveillance system's two digital
video recorders’ hard disks. They left the critical DVR and hard drive in
Costco's control for five days, allowing Costco-Summerlin personnel and the
store’s IT contractor to tamper with video data. Five days after the shooting,
Metro detectives finally decided to pick up one Costco DVR. After valiant
attempts to “recover” critical imagery, the DVR was sent to the U.S. Secret
Service’s Los Angeles office, where forensics experts examined it. The experts
later testified that 96 percent of the DVR’s data were recovered. The four
percent not recoverable just happened
to encompass the time Erik was in Costco, as well as the fatal officer-involved
shooting. The hard disk’s platter sectors, where that critical four percent of unrecoverable
data resided, was physically damaged, as if the disk were running,
“then dropped from about chest high,” according to forensic experts’ testimony.
Within hours of the
shooting, a Clark County Deputy Public Administrator and a Metro cop illegally
broke into Erik's condominium and stole several of his firearms. One pistol, a
small Ruger LCP, was later produced as "proof" that Erik was carrying
two guns. Why two? Because the AMR ambulance crew had reported finding a gun on
Erik’s body. The sole gun Erik really was
carrying (the Kimber) had already been removed from the corpse and placed on
the ground at Costco, still in the holster, as if Erik had pulled it, thereby “justifying”
Mosher's murder. In fact, the only item Erik ever had in-hand was his BlackBerry
smartphone. In a state of panic, Mosher couldn’t distinguish a BlackBerry from
a semiautomatic pistol. He literally executed Erik.
There is absolutely no
doubt that Erik was murdered. However, integrity-challenged cops of Metro’s “Blue
Wall” immediately resorted to post-shooting procedures that are standard
practice for hundreds of corrupt Las Vegas police officers: Conceal the facts, destroy
and manufacture “evidence,” coerce selected eyewitnesses, and systematically
demonize the deceased victim. The cover-up of Erik’s murder-by-cop was aided
and abetted by the Clark County District Attorney, an unprincipled union—the
Las Vegas Police Protective Association—and wealthy power brokers, who control
The Strip.
My family filed two
lawsuits in federal court—one against the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department,
the three shooters and the sheriff, Douglas Gillespie, and a second against
Costco. For unbelievable reasons, both suits went nowhere. After the second was
dismissed, our lawyer said, “I don’t think it’s possible to get justice in this
town.”
The truth about Erik’s
murder and its blatant cover-up is so bizarre that non-Las Vegas citizens would
never believe it. Consequently, I resorted to asymmetric warfare. I wrote a
novel based on the actual events of my son’s senseless execution. Entitled The Permit, the book is “faction”—truth wrapped
in a techno-thriller story. According to reviewers, The Permit is a fast-moving, riveting tale of intrigue, corruption
and accountability.
Synopsis of “The Permit:” A murder-by-cop
victim, “Erik Steele,” was actually a covert assassin for Checkmate, an ultra-secret Department of Homeland Security
counterterrorism team. Arrogant, low-intelligence Las Vegas Metro cops had brazenly
killed a high-value federal agent. As Metro leaders soon realize, their
trigger-happy cretins truly did kill
the wrong guy.
Metro’s clumsy attempts
to cover-up Erik’s execution triggers a deadly campaign codenamed Operation Gold Shield. Activated by the
highest office in America, Shield is designed
to neutralize INDIGO, a new, dangerous class of domestic terrorist that has
killed more Americans since 9/11 than
were lost on that modern day of
infamy: Rogue cops and their corrupt allies. Shield is launched to prevent the U.S. from erupting in armed
revolt. However, the initial targets are those responsible for killing a fellow
Checkmate agent, Erik Steele.
Integrity-devoid
killer-cops, corrupt district attorneys, police union thugs, an unscrupulous
sheriff, and even a powerful billionaire are held accountable via advanced,
highly classified means, such as tiny missiles with nanoparticle warheads; a
microwave-beam weapon that fries a victim; an airborne system that creates
“ghosts” in a target’s bedroom; a “black world” fighter aircraft armed with T-Rex, a stunning electrostatic weapon; an
acoustic beam that shatters bones and buildings, and a lethal disease that
precludes sleep.
Ultimately, bodies pile
up, government officials run scared and the glitzy Las Vegas Strip is silenced.
Checkmate Justice is done.
William
B. Scott, the late-Erik Scott’s father and author of “The Permit,” is a
full-time author and consultant. He retired in 2007 as the Rocky Mountain
Bureau Chief for Aviation Week & Space Technology. Over a 22-year career
with the international magazine, he wrote more than 2,500 stories, and received
17 editorial awards. He is a coauthor of two other novels, “Space Wars: The First
Six Hours of World War III” and “Counterspace: The Next Hours of World War III,”
and a nonfiction book, “Inside the Stealth Bomber: The B-2 Story.”
During a nine-year Air Force career, Bill served as aircrew
on classified airborne-sampling missions, collecting nuclear debris by flying
through radioactive clouds; an electronics engineering officer at the National
Security Agency, developing satellite communications security systems; and an
instrumentation and flight test engineer on U.S. Air Force fighter and
transport aircraft development programs.
Bill is a Flight Test Engineer graduate of the U.S. Air Force
Test Pilot School and a licensed commercial pilot with instrument and
multi-engine ratings. He has logged approximately 2,000 hours on 80 aircraft
types, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from
California State University-Sacramento.
