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Report: Man with rifle fired weapon inside apartment before Henderson police shot him in the chest

Tony Allen McNeill fired three shots inside his home and put the rifle to his chin before pointing it at police officers, who shot him in the chest, according to a Henderson police report released Wednesday.

McNeill, who remains hospitalized, will be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. today in Henderson Justice Court via video link.

He is charged with six felonies, including three counts of assault with a deadly weapon for raising a rifle toward the three officers who fired at him.

McNeill also faces three counts of discharging a firearm into a structure, including one shot that led his mother to believe he had committed suicide while sitting on a couch.

Henderson police on Wednesday identified the officers as John Bellow, hired in 1998, Kevin Perkins, hired in 2007, and Christopher Gerhardt, hired in 2008.

According to his arrest report, McNeill was struck by at least one round fired by the officers.

He suffered a “penetrating gunshot wound to the chest,” according to a nurse at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, who told police the 53-year-old man’s right lung collapsed as a result. He was not wounded in the arm as stated in earlier reports.

Police were called after McNeill fired the first of three rounds into his bedroom floor after arguing with his mother, Charlene McNeill, over household issues.

She told police her son appeared to be intoxicated when he came home to the condominium he shared with his parents and daughter sometime before 1 p.m. Monday.

His mother told police her son had been out all day and night on Sunday, which was Christmas.

She said she smelled alcohol on her son, but McNeill denied he had been drinking. She said he did say he had been taking pills.

Charlene McNeill said that she heard a “pop” in her son’s bedroom that scared her and that afterward he came out of the room holding a .22-caliber rifle.

She called police once she realized the popping sound had been a gunshot. In the meantime, the mother said, McNeill sat on a couch in the living room, placed the butt of the rifle on the floor and the muzzle under his chin, and pulled the trigger.

She told police her back was to her son and she thought he had shot himself, but the round went into the ceiling.

He then went back into his bedroom and fired another round into the floor. Police said there was evidence of the three gunshots inside the home, at 698 S. Racetrack Road, near Boulder Highway.

Police said a dispatcher told Charlene McNeill to take her husband, Robert, and granddaughter, Shelby, outside.

When the three left the home, Tony McNeill told his family to get back inside. When they refused, Charlene McNeill told police, her son said that he would kill himself and that he would shoot police if they came.

Once police arrived, McNeill refused to place the gun on the ground as they ordered him to do, and the three officers fired at him when he raised the rifle. McNeill was wounded by at least one of the officers, police said.

There are reports the family is in financial distress. According to police, McNeill has lived with his parents for 15 years. It was unclear how long his daughter had lived in the home.

McNeill was booked in absentia Tuesday at the Henderson Detention Center. Once he is released from the hospital, he will be detained on a $35,000 bond.

The officers are on routine paid administrative leave during the investigation of the incident.

Contact Doug McMurdo at
dmcmurdo@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512.

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