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Henderson police shoot man who raised rifle at officers responding to 911 call

Just five minutes after Henderson police called Daniel Nieto, advising him to keep his family locked inside their condominium, the sound of gunshots reverberated through the walls.

It was a call that residents of Country Hills, a quiet community near Boulder Highway and Racetrack Road, received Monday about 2 p.m. after a woman called 911.

She said her son had a rifle and threatened to kill himself. She said her husband and granddaughter had been in the home, but her granddaughter had fled and was outside the residence.

Patrol officers quickly arrived at the complex and assembled a team to approach the condo, officer Todd Rasmussen said.

Neighbor Linda Kobige was at work, but her husband saw police in the bushes outside his window when he hung up the phone.

Little did the Kobiges know that police were approaching someone they had known for years, a member of a struggling family with three generations living under the same roof.

As officers moved toward the residence, 53-year-old Tony McNeill came out of the home “wielding the rifle,” Rasmussen said.

“Officers pleaded with him to drop the gun, drop the gun,” he said.

But McNeill did not listen, raising the rifle and aiming it at an officer.

“They had no other choice,” Rasmussen said of the shooting, which occurred in the complex’s front parking lot.

Three officers fired their weapons, he said, but it was unclear whether McNeill fired.

McNeill was struck and was taken to Sunrise Hospital’s Trauma Center for treatment. Sunrise wouldn’t release information about his condition Monday evening. No one else was injured in the incident.  

Linda Kobige, a 17-year resident of the complex, described the incident as “a shame,” saying the mother who made the call is “the sweetest thing.”

The other family members living in the condo are the father, who uses a wheelchair, McNeill’s brother, and a teenage granddaughter of the couple.

The family had fallen on hard times, Kobige said.

McNeill had been a maintenance man at the complex but had to give up the job because of health problems that required him to use a cane.

Two years ago around Christmas, the McNeills’ condo almost burned down from a fire in the upstairs condo, Kobige said. And now the word is that they may lose the condo, she said.

Records show that McNeill’s parents, Robert and Charlene McNeill (who called 911), filed for bankruptcy in August.

The names of the officers involved will be released 48 hours from the time of the incident per department policy. The officers will be placed on routine paid administrative leave during the investigation of the incident.

Tony McNeill, for whom a preliminary records check showed no criminal history, could face felony charges once the investigation is complete.

Even after the standoff was over, neighbor Nieto and his wife kept inside with their two children, shocked at the events that wrapped their calm community in yellow and red police tape.

“We were just freaked out for our kids,” said his wife, Cora.

Contact reporter Trevon Milliard at tmilliard@
reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.

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