‘Shoot me’: Officer shot woman in CSN lot after she approached with a box cutter

The officer who shot and hospitalized a woman in the west Las Vegas Valley was walking backward as the woman approached her with a box cutter before the officer fired one round, police shared Monday.

Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said Catalina Alverado, 26, came up to the patrol vehicles of Delylah Donegan, 28, and a male officer while they were on their lunch breaks just after 5:15 a.m. Friday. The three were in the parking lot of College of Southern Nevada at the 6300 block of West Charleston Boulevard.

Alverado, at the front of one of the vehicles, banged on it with a blue box cutter while yelling at the officers, Koren said. A photo Koren shared of the box cutter showed its blade appear to have a broken tip.

The officers tried to issue commands and distance themselves from Alverado, Koren said, but she refused the commands, continued to approach Donegan and acted aggressively.

Body-worn camera video showed Alverado appear to approach the male officer before turning to Donegan. Alverado appeared, on video, to hit the back of Donegan’s vehicle several times while hollering.

Donegan, appearing to aim her firearm at Alverado, can be seen taking two steps toward Alvarado before telling her “if you walk toward me, I’ll f------ shoot you.” Alverado responded, saying “do it, b----.”

Donegan took at least five steps backward as Alverado took about eight steps toward her while saying “shoot me, b----” at least three times. The male officer tried several times to use a taser on Alverado, Koren said, but the device was ineffective even though the probes struck Alverado’s clothes.

Donegan’s gunshot rang out before the video showed Alverado collapse to the ground. “As a result of the suspect’s actions, Officer Donegan discharged her firearm one time, striking Alvarado,” Koren said.

The officers rendered medical aid before medics took Alverado to a nearby hospital where her condition was stabilized, Koren said. No officers were injured.

Alverado is charged with two felony counts of assault on a protected person with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest with a deadly weapon, as well as a gross misdemeanor injuring or tampering with a motor vehicle charge, online Las Vegas Justice Court records show. Her initial court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday.

Officer ‘had to use the force that she felt was necessary’

Asked if Donegan should have handled the interaction differently, Koren said, “We have a lot of investigative efforts to continue before we can even try to answer that question.”

“Based on the facts that we know right now, our officer responded to an individual who was armed with a knife … was acting aggressively toward those officers and disobeying commands,” Koren said. “The officer had to use the force that she felt was necessary at that moment.”

Koren said police suspect that mental health issues played a role in Alverado’s behavior toward the two officers. He added that Alverado was previously arrested for throwing a rock through a glass window at Metro’s headquarters.

“There have been a number of incidents in the past that indicate a mental health issue and possibly narcotics-related events as well,” Koren said.

Investigators are not sure why the taser was ineffective, Koren said, but he added that a person’s clothing type and movements can change a taser’s effectiveness.

Metro’s tasers have been effective only 79 percent of the time over the last five years, Koren said. He added that Las Vegas police are beginning to use a new taser that fires an increased number of rounds.

Koren said the investigation is still in its early stages, and some details about the shooting may change as the investigation continues.

The shooting marked the 11th by a Metro officer in 2026 and the 5th non-fatal officer-involved shooting of the year, Koren said.

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.