Man arrested in shooting death of Henderson mom
A 38-year-old man was arrested Thursday in connection with the death of his partner, Henderson police said Saturday.
Derrick Allen is being held without bail in the Henderson Detention Center after he was booked on charges of murder, being a felon in possession of a gun and two counts of drug possession, according to jail records.
Allen is suspected in the fatal shooting of Michell Armstrong, 38, who died Wednesday at a home on Brown Street, near downtown Henderson.
Armstrong’s family said the woman had been dating Allen for years. Armstrong, a mother of four, was originally from Kansas.
A Henderson police arrest report for Allen indicates that officers found Armstrong dead from a gunshot wound to the head in a bedroom of the home at 7:41 a.m.
Police wrote in the report that Armstrong also had a gunshot wound to one of her hands. A Clark County coroner’s office investigator determined that the gunshot wound to the hand “was indicative of a defensive wound,” police wrote.
This, in turn, led authorities to deem the killing a homicide.
Police said witnesses told them Allen was the only person in the room with Armstrong at the time of her death and that the two were heard arguing prior to the shooting. A witness also reported later seeing Allen holding a gun to his own head in the moments after Armstrong was killed, police said.
Allen has an arrest record in Henderson dating to 1999.
In 2002, he was found guilty of battery and sentenced to probation, according to court records. In 2004, Henderson police arrested Allen on a charge of possession of a controlled substance, but the case was dropped.
District Court records indicate he was found guilty of possession of a short-barreled gun and attempted robbery in 2005. In 2009, he was found guilty of drug possession, assault with a deadly weapon and battery resulting in substantial bodily harm.
He also was charged with possession of methamphetamine in 2008, but the case was dismissed in Las Vegas Justice Court.
In 2014, he was charged with drug trafficking, but the case was dismissed in Henderson Justice Court.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter. Staff writer Glenn Puit contributed to this report.
