Man fatally shot in attempted burglary at central Las Vegas home
A woman fatally shot a man who broke into her home during an attempted burglary Saturday morning in the central valley, Las Vegas police said.
About 11:15 a.m., a woman called 911 to report that she had shot a man who had broken into her home on the 7000 block of Knoll View Drive, near Warm Springs Road and Spencer Street, Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said during a news briefing Saturday afternoon. The woman said that after the shooting, the man drove away in a Kia.
“Immediately after the call,” an officer near Warm Springs and Spencer saw the car and stopped it at the intersection, about a half-mile from the woman’s home, Spencer said. The man, in his early 30s, was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where he died.
Spencer said the woman was home alone when she heard a knock at her front door. She didn’t answer the knock, but a few minutes later she heard the sound of breaking glass.
The man had broken a back sliding-glass door and came into the home, Spencer said. The woman then went to her bedroom, where she had a handgun.
The man then came into the bedroom and confronted the woman. The man “lunged toward the homeowner, who fired and shot one time, striking the suspect,” Spencer said.
While the man drove away from the home he crashed into at least one car and possibly a mailbox, he said.
Spencer said detectives consider the shooting a case of self-defense.
“It is obvious that the round from the homeowner was fired from well (within) the residence,” Spencer said, adding that police believe “the suspect may have been here for several hours parked in front of the house, and could have been casing the area.”
Detectives on Saturday afternoon had interviewed the woman and were searching for surveillance footage in the area. The man will be identified by the Clark County coroner’s office after his family has been notified.
The shooting marks the 109th homicide investigation conducted by Metro police this year, according to records maintained by the Review-Journal.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.