The armed man had just shot another shopper inside the store, police said, after an earlier fight escalated before officers arrived.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — An officer arriving at an east Las Vegas Walmart heard a gunshot from inside, saw shoppers rushing from the entrance and then encountered an armed man running out of the store, a sequence that ended within moments with the officer firing six rounds and killing the man, according to police video and subsequent investigative briefings.

The July 21 confrontation was only the final stage of a longer disturbance that Las Vegas Metropolitan Police say began outside the Walmart in the 5100 block of Boulder Highway shortly after 6 a.m. Investigators identified the dead man as 35-year-old Travis Ward. Police said Ward had entered the store with a handgun and shot 28-year-old Kwame Swain in the abdomen after a physical fight involving Swain, Raqiya Smith and Ameea Blue. Swain was initially taken to a hospital in critical condition and was later reported stable. Police also arrested Smith, Blue and Swain as investigators reconstructed the events that preceded the gunfire.

Body-worn camera footage released by police puts Officer Cristobal Magana at the center of the final seconds. Magana, 29, had been with the department since 2024 and was assigned to the Southeast Area Command. Police said he arrived as a caller was reporting that someone had been shot. As Magana began getting out of his patrol vehicle, he heard what he believed was a shot from inside the Walmart. Ward then came through the entrance carrying a handgun, according to police. Investigators said Magana ordered him to drop the weapon. Ward did not comply, police said, and Magana opened fire with his department-issued 9 mm handgun.

The department said Magana fired six rounds. Ward fell outside the store and was taken into custody. Officers and medical personnel attempted to provide aid, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. No officers were reported injured. The department placed Magana on paid administrative leave, a standard step after a police shooting, while the incident entered the department’s deadly-force review process. LVMPD lists the case as its eighth officer-involved shooting of 2026 and its fifth fatal one at the time of the July briefing. The department’s public deadly-force page continues to list the district attorney decision letter, Force Investigation Team report and Office of Internal Oversight review as pending.

What Magana knew when he arrived was far more limited than what investigators later pieced together from surveillance video, witnesses, an arrest report and the emergency call. A Walmart security employee had called police about a large fight and urged officers to respond. During the roughly four-minute call, the disturbance continued. Police later said the caller could be heard warning people not to throw a rock. By the end of the call, the situation had changed from a fight to a shooting. Newly obtained 911 audio later published by KTNV captured the caller telling dispatch that one man had shot another.

Investigators said the conflict had started outside the Walmart while Swain was arguing with his girlfriend. Smith and Blue walked nearby, and an exchange of words followed. The precise cause of the dispute remains unclear, and published accounts have differed on who first said something to whom. According to an arrest report cited by local news outlets, the exchange became physical, with punches thrown among Swain, Smith and Blue. Police alleged that Blue then picked up a large rock and struck Swain with it. Walmart security intervened and separated people involved in the confrontation, but investigators said the conflict did not end there.

Police allege Smith stepped away during the disturbance and contacted Ward, described in different police-related reports as her husband or boyfriend. Witnesses told investigators they heard her tell Ward to bring a gun. According to the arrest report, Ward drove to the Walmart and parked near the entrance. Smith then pointed him toward Swain, who had gone inside, investigators said. Surveillance footage later shown by police depicts Ward entering the store, passing shoppers and drawing a handgun from his waistband. He fired one round that struck Swain, according to police. Investigators said Ward appeared to try to fire again but the handgun malfunctioned.

Assistant Sheriff Bryan Peterson said the firearm still contained additional ammunition when investigators recovered it. Police said that if Ward had survived, they would have sought his arrest on suspicion of attempted murder, discharging a firearm where a person might be endangered, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and burglary. Those offenses were never filed against Ward because he died at the scene. The department’s description of what he would have faced reflects investigators’ assessment and does not constitute a criminal conviction.

The investigation also produced cases against people who survived the confrontation. Smith and Blue were booked on allegations that included conspiracy to commit battery, battery with a deadly weapon and disregarding the safety of people or property resulting in death or substantial bodily harm. Local court reporting identified Smith as 25 and Blue as 30. At an early court appearance, lawyers for the women disputed the prosecution’s account of who initiated the fight. Because the charges remain allegations, neither woman’s guilt has been established. Reports also varied at different points on Smith’s bail status, making later court records more reliable than the first breaking-news accounts for future proceedings.

Swain’s legal situation is separate from the allegations that he was shot by Ward. Police said Swain was booked in absentia while hospitalized on unrelated allegations involving domestic violence, including misdemeanor domestic battery counts and a felony attempted-coercion count. Authorities have not said those allegations justified or caused the later shooting inside Walmart. Swain remained the wounded person in that shooting investigation, and police said his medical condition had improved from critical to stable by the time of their detailed video briefing. His girlfriend has not been publicly identified in the principal reports because she was not charged in connection with the Walmart confrontation.

The release of surveillance video, body-camera footage and 911 audio added detail to an event that initially was described only as a fight followed by an officer-involved shooting. The later records show that Magana arrived at nearly the same moment that a gunshot was heard inside and Ward emerged with the handgun. They also show that the deadly police encounter cannot be separated from the earlier fight and Ward’s alleged shooting of Swain, even though investigators must evaluate Magana’s use of force on the facts available to the officer at the moment he fired.

As of Aug. 26, the police department’s public deadly-force records still list the reviews of the fatal officer shooting as pending. The criminal allegations involving the surviving participants are separate matters and must be resolved through the courts. Authorities have not publicly established a definitive reason for the original argument outside the Walmart, leaving the cause of the confrontation among the central unanswered questions in a case that moved from a fistfight to two shootings in a matter of minutes.

Author note: Last updated August 26, 2026.