The average age of a LVPD officer is only 28, and the average time on the job is only 4 years. It is a product of the rapid growth and nature of the community. The article notes that the officer shooting on February 1st likely has made the younger officers a little more willing to pull the trigger on a civilian.

Sheriff Bill Young has voiced concerns about two of the shootings and said he welcomed the FBI probe.

He also cited the relative inexperience of his force. Faced with explosive population growth and the crime that accompanies it, the department -- which covers most of Clark County -- has doubled in size in 15 years. The average officer is 28, Young said.

"We're hiring from the human race," Young said. "They're young people in their 20s, and they're assigned to the graveyard shift. They're confronting more and more people with guns. So you have to ask the question: Is it the training? Is it their age? Or is it the luck of the draw?"

The killing of Sgt. Prendes hangs over the department, and some in the community are convinced that incident gave the younger officers itchy fingers.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Not when a tourist captures the aftermath of a shooting on tape, Rodney King style:

Police also shot and killed Tarance Hall, 31, whose car was blocking traffic and blaring music at a crowded intersection on the Las Vegas Strip on July 4. The incident was witnessed by dozens of tourists, some of whom said afterward that they thought it was a taping of the TV show "CSI."

...

Afterward, police dragged Hall's limp body from the car, threw him to the street and handcuffed him, a scene videotaped by a tourist and broadcast nationally shows. Hall was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after.