By Casey Harrison
Las Vegas Review-Journal
LAS VEGAS — Surveillance footage shown Friday from a Las Vegas Walmart showed an armed man walk a few steps into the store and open fire at another man seconds before the gunman was killed by an officer.
At a news briefing Friday, the Metropolitan Police Department played video of Travis Dewayne Ward , 35, walking past shoppers, pulling a handgun from his waistband and firing at least one shot that struck Kwame Swain early Tuesday. Ward appeared to try to fire another shot, but police said his gun malfunctioned.
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Ward’s gun had an additional nine rounds in the magazine, Assistant Sheriff Bryan Peterson said at the briefing.
Ward walked out of the store with the weapon at his side just as Metro officer Cristobal Magana rolled up in his police cruiser, according to body camera footage played at the briefing. Magana stepped out of his vehicle and ordered Ward to drop the gun before the officer fired from a 9 mm handgun.
As Ward ran toward the parking lot, Magana fired at least four more rounds, killing Ward at the scene.
Peterson said Magana, a 29-year-old Metro officer since 2024, responded to the store, located in the 5100 block of Boulder Highway , near Harmon Avenue , shortly after 6 a.m. after receiving a report about a fight at the business.
“The caller could be heard yelling at several individuals and telling one of the individuals not to throw a rock,” Peterson said.
Several officers were dispatched and Magana arrived shortly after police received the 911 call, Peterson said. He said Magana heard a gunshot coming from inside and saw several people running out of the business.
“Simultaneously, the individual who called the police advised dispatch that someone had been shot,” Peterson said. “As the officer got out of his car, Ward ran out of the business armed with a gun.”
Peterson said investigators learned Swain was involved in a fight involving two women outside the Walmart before the shooting. A Metro report said that Ward had shown up to the store with a gun after his wife, Raqiya Halima Smith , got into a fight outside the store with Swain.
“One woman hit the man in the face with a rock,” while Smith called Ward to bring a gun, Peterson said. “Ward drove up, ran inside the business to find the male (Swain), and then shot him.”
Magana’s body-camera footage played at Friday’s briefing showed the officer firing at Ward moments after making contact with him. The officer fired shots as others were immediately nearby.
Peterson said Magana fired due to an imminent deadly threat to the public.
“Our officers respond daily to calls with limited information and seconds to assess rapidly changing information,” Peterson said. “In this moment, officers immediately encountered a dangerous situation. When a shot was fired inside of a crowded business, the priority became protecting innocent lives from an immediate deadly threat and the officers acted to stop that threat.”
Peterson said Swain was transported to a local hospital and his condition had since stabilized.
Swain was arrested and booked in absentia on unrelated misdemeanor domestic battery charges and a felony count of attempted coercion constituting domestic violence.
If Ward had survived, he would have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, discharging a firearm where a person might be in danger, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and burglary, Peterson said.
Smith and the woman she was at the store with, Ameea Blue, were arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of conspiracy to commit battery, battery with a deadly weapon and disregarding the safety of people and property resulting in death or substantial bodily harm.
The shooting was still under investigation, Peterson said. It is Metro’s eighth officer-involved shooting in 2026.
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Contact Akiya Dillon at [email protected]. Contact Casey Harrison at [email protected]. Staff Writer Akiya Dillon contributed to this report.
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