LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Metro Police officer was shot more than 20 years ago, and the man who shot him is still on the run. During an exclusive interview with the I-Team, the U.S. Marshal of the District of Nevada explained how this won’t be a cold case any longer while asking for the public’s help.
The I-Team began the Vegas Fugitive segment a little more than a year ago, and several suspects have been caught after tips came in from viewers. The U.S. Marshals are hoping the public can help again with a case which stems from an officer-involved shooting that happened more than two decades ago.
Metro Police officer Luis Norris was shot on January 27, 1997.
Records show Norris was responding to an unrelated disturbance call when he heard gunfire from a van nearby on Reno Avenue near Tropicana and Maryland. A woman who was shot ran from the van, and the gunman opened fire on the police officer and ran. Norris’ bullet proof vest staved his life, and the other victim survived, too.
The suspect was identified as Nacho Garcia Hinojosa, also known as Jorge Garcia Hinojosa. The 24-year-old man disappeared, and police are still searching for him more than two decades later.
U.S. Marshal Gary Schofield says the case is active again.
“You don’t shoot a police officer and get away with it,” Schofield said. “I am confident that somebody out there has seen him, knows him, remembers the story. I’m confident he probably talked to somebody about it, about how he got away with almost killing a cop.”
Schofield was appointed for the district of Nevada in 2018. He is also a Metro retiree, and he says he was a supervisor the night his fellow officer was shot.
“That’s one of those things that you always remember, and why I remember this one is because all of us were stunned,” he said. “The town was a little bit smaller in 1997, so it was very unheard of for somebody just to blatantly open fire on a Metropolitan Police officer in uniform.”
Now, the U.S. Marshals are releasing the wanted poster. The photo is from ’90s, but investigators believe Hinojosa, now 45-years-old, could still be in the Las Vegas area. He has family here. Mexico is another possibility.
Hinojosa may also have changed his name.
Norris went back to work after the shooting and recently retired.
If you have any information, you are urged to call the U.S. Marshals at 702-388-6355 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555. You could earn a cash reward for information leading to an arrest.
Right now, the U.S. Marshals are working on getting a sketch of what the suspect would look like now more than 20 years older. This will be posted when made available.
