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July 10, 202 marks the ten-year anniversary of the murder of Erik Scott by panicky, undertrained Las Vegas police officers at the Summerlin Costco.  I never met Erik Scott, but over many years of investigating his murder, writing and publishing the definitive book on the case, I came to know him well, which only exacerbates my sense of loss—and outrage.

July 10, 2010:  Erik Scott and his fiancé, Samantha Sterner, were shopping at the Summerlin Costco in Las Vegas.  Bending down to examine merchandise on a low shelf, his shirt momentary rode up, exposing his legally carried concealed handgun.  This would have come to nothing if a cop-wannbe security guard had not chanced to see it.  He called management, who spoke with Erik.  They parted amicably, and Erik, who was never asked to leave the store, continued to shop, one of hundreds of unremarkable customers in the Costco that day.

But the security guard, against store policy, called the Metro police, and there began a bizarre and deadly comedy of errors.  Between the security guard, the call taker, the dispatcher and three undertrained, panicky cops, part of a wall of brown and tan (LVMPD uniform colors) that would soon number more than 60, including a canine unit, cadets and a helicopter, that hastily rushed to the Costco, Metro forces somehow got the idea Scott was a Green Beret–something he never said or implied–was threatening people with guns, was under the influence of drugs and was refusing to leave the store.  They claimed that challenged by an officer that was pointing his handgun at Scott at a distance of six feet, Scott drew his handgun, still in its holster, and pointed it at him.

None of that was remotely true, but even today, Metro apologists in social media and elsewhere, continue to spout the false Metro narrative, a narrative that furthers the cover up of Erik Scott’s murder by three Metro cops.  Lies like this cry out for the truth.  I had no idea I would be the one to tell the definitive story.

My first article on the Erik Scott case explains how I became involved:

September 17, 2010:  Bob Owens published his initial article on the Erik Scott Case at PJ Media.  I had been a reader of Confederate Yankee—his then blog–for some time and a frequent commenter as well.  As Bob embarked on his first AR-15 project, I provided advice and a friendship began which led to an invitation to guest blog.  My first foray into the Blogosphere was inspired by Bob and by this first article.

As regular readers know, Bob committed suicide.  He, like Erik Scott, was a friend I never had the opportunity to meet. I miss him.

Reading that article, my cop sense–like Spiderman’s spidey sense– tingled like mad.  I knew only what the article contained, but everything about the case felt wrong.  As I began what would turn out to be a seven+ year investigation, resulting in a substantial archive,  I gave the Metro police the benefit of the doubt.  I very quickly learned they did not deserve it, and I had to do something about it.

Erik Scott was an extraordinary man.  Even as a child, he was high-energy, a self-motivated achiever, a natural, goal-seeking leader.  When he arrived in high school, he announced he was going to West Point, and he made it happen.

Erik Scott, Armor Officer

An extraordinary athlete, and precisely the kind of scholar/athlete our military academies seek, he did well, and became an armor officer, serving in M1 tanks.  But with the end of the Cold War, the military was drawing down.  He accepted an early out opportunity, moved to Las Vegas and did well in real estate during the last real estate boom–until it busted.  He quickly built a career selling and servicing cardiac pacemakers, working at all hours of the day and night, even advising in the operating room.  He was respected by all who knew him, not only for his reliability and dedication, but for his character.

As I investigated the case as best I could–Metro wasn’t the least interested in disseminating the truth, and the local media essentially bought the Metro narrative, hook, line and sinker–I eventually became acquainted with the Scott family, and little by little, understood why Erik was such an extraordinary, honorable man: he got it from his parents.

As regular readers know, I was eventually able to obtain not only the complete Metro report—thousands of pages–which includes the transcripts of the farcically corrupt coroner’s inquest, and a great many other depositions and interviews, many conducted by Scott Family’s attorneys, which Metro never saw.  My suspicions were fully confirmed.  Metro was incredibly sloppy because no one challenged them.  It was worse that I imagined.

Three Metro cops murdered an innocent man in the middle of a crowd of some 200 people, and Metro, the prosecutors, and much of the Las Vegas establishment covered for them.  William Mosher, a serial Metro killer, shot Scott twice, and as he fell, flat on his face on the concrete, Thomas Mendiola and Joshua Stark rushed up and shot him five times in the back and buttocks.  In 2011, Mendiola was fired–a rarity in Metro–for knowingly giving a firearm to a convicted felon.  Rumors persist Mendiola’s crimes were far more voluminous than was publicly admitted.  Mosher “retired” in 2017, far short of 20 year’s service, and apparently, Stark remains on the force.  Stark is said to have shown genuine remorse, but never enough to tell the truth.  To be fair, telling the truth in Metro, and Las Vegas, can be fatal.

After finally obtaining all the documentation, I spent, with my co-author, about a year and a half writing License To Kill: The Murder Of Erik Scott.  It was only my knowledge of proper police procedure that allowed me to wade though thousands of pages of police reports and related documentation and make the connections that prove the murder and the cover up.  Metro’s own reports are the primary evidence, which is most likely why they shut up in the hope this whole thing will just go away.

It took nearly as long to find a publisher.  That’s difficult any time, but in these Internet driven days, even more so.

William Mosher, the first of Scott’s killers

Perhaps the most interesting fact about the book is it is Metro’s own reports that damn them.  Knowing where to look, I was able to piece together, through painstaking page-by-page examination of Metro’s incredibly shoddy report and the many related documents what actually happened.  That’s the story of the book, that, and the effect of Erik’s murder on his family, Las Vegas, and American policing.

Though Erik and I never met, though I know him only through the words of those that knew and loved him, and through his accomplishments, I am as honored to know of him as if he were my best friend.  There are some people, gentle readers, all Americans should know.  Erik Scott is one such.  His memory should live, and I hope you’ll all have a hand in that.

Knowing Erik’s parents as I do, I have at least some small sense of their anguish on this tenth anniversary of Erik’s murder, but I can never fully understand the depth of a suffering that never ends.  I do know that the book helped ease that suffering, because it’s a fitting memorial to Erik.  It also serves as an object, moral lesson about what happens to decent, honorable Americans when we allow our police forces and politicians to believe they are above the law–that they are the law.

When the book went public in June of 2018, Metro apologists, including one of the two primary detectives that covered up for the killer cops, did what they had done from the beginning: lied and tried to confuse the issue.  On Facebook and anywhere else they could, they claimed the book was filled with lies—they hadn’t read a word of it—and continued to push the laughably false Metro narrative about what happened.  I calmly and forcefully recited the facts, directing them to specific pages of the report, and they soon dropped out of sight again.

Erik Scott at West Point

They’d be happy if Erik Scott’s name was never again spoken.  That’s not going to happen.

The truth is most American police agencies are honest and dedicated to public service.  Some, like Metro, however, are not.  It is these agencies about which the public needs to know.  It is these agencies that are more dangerous to the law-abiding public than to criminals.  It is these agencies that must be reformed.

I knew I would never make any real money on the book, but I had to write it.  Even though I no longer enforce the law for a living, my compulsion to do justice required no less.  As with Marines, there’s no such thing as an ex-cop, just former cops carrying everything they learned and experienced to the grave.  In a time when publishing a book in paper is very, very hard to do, I consider it nothing less than the hand of Providence that it has been published.

I encourage you, gentle readers, to learn about Erik Scott, and to contemplate why such a honorable, patriotic American was cut down by cowards, and why he continues to be slandered by those unfit to shine his combat boots.  I encourage you to spread his story, as I work to do the same.

The book, a detective story as well as a story of incredible police corruption, can be purchased through the publisher–North Slope Publications–-or through Amazon.

Erik Scott is an American life worth knowing and celebrating, and worth a prayer, for him and those that love him, on this July 10th, and every July 10th.  Not every anniversary is an occasion for joyful remembrance, but on this, the tenth anniversary of his unnecessary death, join me in saying:  Ave atque vale, Erik.  You’ll never be forgotten.