In the late evening hours of February 22, 1978, a routine traffic stop on Paradise Road in Las Vegas turned deadly for a veteran police officer. James Richard Rogan, a 41-year-old Caucasian male, was a motorcycle officer with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. That night, he pulled over a Cadillac that was missing its license plates. As he was attempting to issue a ticket, the driver of the vehicle unexpectedly opened fire.
The initial shot caught Officer Rogan by surprise.
As he lay wounded on the ground, the assailant stood over him and fired several more shots from a large-caliber handgun, emptying the weapon into the fallen officer. A witness to the horrific event described seeing Rogan being shot again even after he was already down. Rogan had not even had the chance to draw his own weapon from its holster. He was rushed to Sunrise Hospital, but the injuries were too severe, and he died on the operating table about an hour after the shooting. An eight-year veteran of the force, Rogan was a married father of four children.
Immediately following the shooting, a massive manhunt was launched to find the person responsible for Officer Rogan's death. The suspect abandoned the Cadillac a short distance from the scene, and police, using helicopters and search planes, began a meticulous 16-block search of the surrounding area. The door-to-door search continued through the night and into the next morning. The search came to a dramatic and violent end around 7:30 a.m. when the suspect was located.
The suspect, later tentatively identified as 39-year-old John H. McClain, had broken into a nearby house. The homeowners, who had been out for the evening, returned to find the door to their bathroom, which was normally left open, was closed and locked. They alerted the police, who responded to the residence. As two officers opened the bathroom door, they perceived a threatening movement from the suspect inside and opened fire. McClain was killed at the scene; no weapon was found on or near his body. His death brought the intense search to a close, and the investigation into the cold-blooded murder of Officer Rogan concluded with the death of his killer.
