Las Vegas police share new details in stolen car chase that ended with fatal shooting

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's recent pursuit of a stolen vehicle ended with two officers fatally shooting the car's driver.

We first learned of the fatal encounter between police and the driver, since identified as 53-year-old Shane Hansen, on Thursday.

Asst. Sheriff Dori Koren on Monday shared additional details about the investigation, including body-worn camera footage and footage captured by one of LVMPD's helicopters during the pursuit.

Watch the full briefing from Asst. Sheriff Dori Koren:

According to police, the chase spanned several miles, from roughly near the Interstate 15 interchange at Spring Mountain Road to the 500 block of Miller Avenue in North Las Vegas (near Carey Avenue and Commerce Street).

This is the seventh shooting involving Las Vegas police officers in 2026, and the first fatal shooting. This time last year, Koren said, there had been three such shootings, all of which were fatal.

The officers involved in the shooting were identified by LVMPD on Saturday as 33-year-old David Plascencia and 37-year-old Steven McIntire. Both have been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is under review.

Koren says the pursuit began when LVMPD's Fusion Watch detected a stolen vehicle in the area of Flamingo Road and Linq Lane at approximately 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Koren explained that the license plate reader is one of several located throughout the valley, which scan license plates and trigger an alert if a plate linked to a stolen or wanted vehicle is detected.

Video shows an LVMPD drone locating the car (approximately 6 seconds into the video, you will see a bright blue vehicle entering the freeway interchange):

In response to the Fusion Watch alert, a drone was launched, and the remote drone pilot located the car in the area of Spring Mountain Road and I-15. Koren says officers "converged on the area" and attempted to stop the driver, but he "fled at a high rate of speed, driving recklessly during rush-hour traffic." Koren says police were authorized to pursue the car.

In an interview with Channel 13's Alyssa Bethencourt, Sheriff Kevin McMahill recently confirmed a change to the department's vehicle pursuit policy and acknowledged pursuits are happening more often. (You can find out more about that here.)

Koren showed video of the stolen car being driven recklessly on I-15, including on the wrong side of the freeway, which he says went on for several miles until the driver stopped in the 500 block of Miller Lane.

Watch LVMPD's helicopter video of the car traveling on I-15:

Three people got out of the car and ran, Koren said. Two of them were taken into custody. The third, identified as Hansen, was found hiding behind a mobile home. Koren said one of the officers saw Hansen drop a firearm and quickly pick it back up.

Koren said Hansen was armed with a Ruger SP101 .357 Magnum revolver with five rounds in the chamber.

LVMPD

LVMPD

Officers gave Hansen "numerous" commands to drop the firearm, Koren said, and fired their guns at him when they saw him "raise the gun in their direction."

Medical first responders were called in to give Hansen aid, but Koren said he was pronounced dead at the scene.

"Before I conclude, I just want to say that our officers are encountering a variety of suspects at different times, a variety of different crime categories, but at the end of the day they have one job, which is to lower crime in this community and keep the community safe," Koren said. "They're doing the best they can to get that done in very difficult circumstances, and when someone points a firearm at our cops, it unfortunately puts us in a position where our cops have to take deadly force action, and that's what happened in this case."

He was asked to respond to the number of shootings involving officers the department has seen this year, given that LVMPD had seven shootings involving police in all of 2025, and there have been seven so far this year.

Koren acknowledged that McMahill made reducing shootings a priority last year, "and we had a historic reduction."

"So, it's hard, because we've reduced them so much, and now we're seeing this uptick, but the most important thing for you and the public to understand is we don't dictate the actions of the suspect," Koren said. "If you pull a gun out on a cop, then unfortunately, you're going to put us in a situation where we have to use deadly force. We can't control these circumstances; we have to take appropriate action."