Police shot and killed a woman on a busy roadway Tuesday after she walked into traffic with a child and threatened passing drivers with a knife, authorities said.
Officers used pepper spray, Taser stun guns and beanbag shotgun rounds to try to subdue the woman, but with no visible effect, said Officer Jose Montoya, a Las Vegas police spokesman. Two officers shot her at about 8 a.m., Montoya said.
"She tried twice to get into two different vehicles showing the knife," Montoya said.
Just before the shooting, officers pulled a boy who appeared to be about 3 years old away from the woman. Neither was identified, and police did not describe their relationship.
Montoya said authorities believed the woman was suffering from a mental condition.
She was pronounced dead at a Las Vegas hospital. The child was unharmed and placed in the custody of Clark County child welfare services.
The two officers were placed on paid administrative leave pending a departmental review of the shooting. A Clark County coroner's inquest will be scheduled later.
Officers were first called to a report of a woman throwing chairs in a Jack In The Box restaurant, Montoya said. No customers or police officers were hurt.
The woman, with the child in tow, then walked onto Martin Luther King Boulevard, a key route between North Las Vegas and downtown Las Vegas.