Suspect talked out of using gun in Henderson botched burglary
On June 20, a burglar, gun in hand, was interrupted inside a Henderson home. Police say he shot a man the night before.
But instead of shooting a second man, the burglar this time was convinced by the homeowner to put the gun down and flee, arrest documents show.
According to the report, 41-year-old Timothy Sledge used residents’ own guns against them during back-to-back burglaries in a neighborhood near Lake Mead Parkway and Warm Springs Road. Sledge is accused of shooting a man in the back before fleeing during the first burglary on the afternoon of June 19.
Sledge shot that homeowner with the man’s own AK-47 rifle, picking it up only after the man’s AR-15 rifle didn’t fire, he told Henderson Police Department officers. Sledge said he shot the man when he was interrupted while burglarizing the man’s home, the report said.
The homeowner confronted Sledge and threw a chair at him. The man tried to leave the home when he heard a “trigger pull,” and was then shot in the back, the report said.
He was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, and was expected to survive, police have said.
Sledge admitted to police that the next day, he burglarized a home located only a few minutes from the first burglary, the arrest report said. Once again, a man returned home during the burglary.
When the man went inside, he saw the burglar holding his own handgun. The man was able to “talk Sledge into setting the gun down,” and the burglar then ran from the home, the report said.
Police located Sledge after a neighbor called in with a tip, saying that the door to his backyard shed looked suspicious. Officers found Sledge hiding in the shed, the report said.
In an interview with police, Sledge “offered a full confession to his involvement with the burglary and shooting,” the arrest report said.
Sledge said he shot at the man because “he was scared” and didn’t think he could quickly escape the home, the report said.
He remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Wednesday with a $500,000 bail.
Sledge has been charged with attempted murder with a deadly weapon, burglary, burglary with a firearm or deadly weapon, discharging a firearm within a structure, possessing stolen property, home invasion, and assault with a deadly weapon, court records show.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.