A public fact-finding review in Clark County has left the central question in one of Las Vegas's most painful police shootings formally unanswered: who fired the shots that killed a 3-year-old boy during a February confrontation between his father and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers. Testifying at the review on Wednesday, October 28, Detective Brian Walter of Metro's Force Investigation Team said the Clark County coroner's office could not attribute the child's gunshot wounds to any particular weapon — not to the father's gun, and not to the officers' guns. Police had earlier said the father shot his son. After this week's testimony, that claim no longer stands as an established fact.
Source: FOX5 Vegas reporting of Detective Brian Walter's review testimony, Nov 1, 2026
The review was held because the Clark County District Attorney's Office had already made a preliminary determination that criminal prosecution of the two officers who fired was not appropriate. Under the county's police-fatality review process, that preliminary decision triggers a public hearing at which the evidence is presented openly. Hearing Officer Ozzie Fumo, who presided at the Commission Chambers of the Clark County Government Center at 500 S. Grand Central Parkway in Las Vegas, reminded those present that the proceeding was not a trial, and the review renders no formal determination on cause or manner of death.
Source: Clark County, Nevada — official fact-finding review notice
The night of February 3
The shooting happened in the early hours of February 3, 2026, at the Parkside Villas apartment complex in the 8400 block of South Maryland Parkway, near East Wigwam Avenue in Las Vegas. Officers were called at about 1:19 a.m. on a domestic disturbance report from Baker's girlfriend, Raneka Pate. Police say an argument inside the apartment escalated, and that Baker allegedly attacked Pate and another woman before coming outside. Those allegations are the police account presented at the review; they have not been tested in a criminal trial.
Source: KTNV and News 3 Las Vegas reporting, Nov 1, 2026
Body-camera video released in connection with the review shows Baker holding his 3-year-old son in one arm with a handgun pointed at the child's chest, advancing toward officers while they ordered him to stop and drop the weapon, according to investigators. Detective Walter testified that Baker said he wanted to see Pate and that he was going to shoot himself. A lieutenant ordered an officer with a long gun to take the shot if he had a clear line of fire. Officer Damon O'Donnell, 26, fired twice and Officer Jonathan Lowe, 39, fired three times — five rounds in total. Walter testified that Baker fired four rounds from his own gun as he fell. No officer was injured. The shooting was Metro's third officer-involved shooting of 2026.
Source: FOX5 Vegas reporting of Detective Brian Walter's review testimony, Nov 1, 2026
What the autopsies found
Autopsies were performed on February 4 by Dr. Nathan Schaller. Baker, who sustained four gunshot wounds, died at the scene; his cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was ruled homicide. His son suffered two gunshot wounds — a contact wound to the head and an intermediate-range wound to the left buttock that perforated the femoral artery, investigators testified. Officers carried the child to a waiting ambulance, and he was taken to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he was pronounced dead. His death was also ruled a homicide. Walter also testified that Baker's blood-alcohol concentration was 0.148, nearly twice Nevada's 0.08 legal driving limit — a detail investigators presented as context for his state that night, not as a finding about who fired any shot.
Source: Clark County fact-finding review record, Oct 28, 2026
"The coroner did not say specifically, 'This shot came from this weapon or this shot came from this weapon,'" Detective Brian Walter told the review. In plain terms: the forensic evidence presented in public cannot say whether the bullets that struck the child came from his father's gun or from police guns — and police had previously told the public that the father shot the boy.
What is solid
- The shooting occurred on Feb 3, 2026, at the Parkside Villas apartments on S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas
- Two officers fired five rounds in total; investigators testified Baker fired four rounds as he fell
- Autopsies ruled both deaths homicides from multiple gunshot wounds
- The District Attorney's Office preliminarily decided not to prosecute the officers, which triggered the public review
What is only claimed
- Who fired the shots that struck the 3-year-old — the coroner could not attribute them to any one weapon
- Whether Baker used his son as a shield, as police describe it — the child's mother disputes that characterisation
The mother's challenge
Raneka Pate, the child's mother, has disputed the police description of her son as a human shield and has hired attorneys who plan a wrongful-death action against the department, according to reporting on the review. Her position gained ground this week: the department's own investigator confirmed in public that the earlier statement blaming Baker alone for the child's death cannot be supported by the coroner's findings. Pate told 8 News Now a day after the shooting that she had been seeking answers about her son's death ever since; the review is the first public proceeding at which officials have had to present the evidence in the open.
Source: FOX5 Vegas reporting of Detective Brian Walter's review testimony, Nov 1, 2026
Why this review exists
Clark County's Police Fatality Public Fact-Finding Review, set out in county ordinance Chapter 2.12, is the mechanism the county uses when a person dies in an incident involving police and the District Attorney's Office preliminarily decides prosecution is not appropriate. A hearing officer presides, a representative of the District Attorney's Office — in this review, Hilary Heap — presents the case, and an ombudsman, here attorney Josh Tomsheck, represents the interests of the public and the family, questioning witnesses on their behalf. The session was aired on Clark County Television and streamed on the county's YouTube channel. Its purpose is transparency, not verdict: it makes no ruling, and it cannot order charges.
Source: Clark County, Nevada — official fact-finding review notice
Who Quinton Baker was
Quinton Baker, 28, was a Kentucky native and a former college running back who played at Portland State University and Western Kentucky University. Nothing in the review changed the sequence on which all sides agree: a domestic call, a father who came out of an apartment holding his small son with a gun at the child's chest, officers who fired, and a father and son both dead. What the review changed is the certainty around the death of the child — and it changed it in the direction of doubt, on the record, from the investigators themselves.
Source: KTNV and News 3 Las Vegas reporting, Nov 1, 2026
What happens next
The District Attorney's preliminary decision not to prosecute the two officers stands unless new evidence emerges, and the county review process is now complete — it issues no further findings. The next arena is therefore civil, not criminal: the wrongful-death lawsuit Pate's attorneys say they will file would test the department's account, and the officers' decision to fire, in front of a civil court, where the coroner's inability to attribute the child's wounds is likely to be a central fact. Metro's Force Investigation Team file and the coroner's reports remain the core public record. Awaaz Punjab will update this story if the District Attorney finalises its decision or a civil suit is filed.
Source: Clark County, Nevada — official fact-finding review notice