North Las Vegas man allegedly killed by roommate ID’d

A man who allegedly was shot and killed by his roommate on Friday in their North Las Vegas apartment died of a gunshot wound to his head, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.

Andre D. Smith, 49, was pronounced dead at the scene on the 5000 block of North Losee Road. The North Las Vegas man’s death was ruled a homicide.

His roommate, 30-year-old Kiahna Hawkins, initially claimed she was acting in self-defense. She was arrested that day on one count of murder with a deadly weapon, North Las Vegas police have said. She remained held on $1 million bail on Monday at the Las Vegas Detention Center, jail records show.

Hawkins told police that she saw “spirits” in a bedroom when Smith came home about 4:30 a.m., and that one of the spirits “came out of him so she shot it” in self-defense, her arrest report said. Police found Smith dead of an apparent gunshot wound inside the bedroom.

A detective noted in the report that it appeared Hawkins lived with mental illness.

After Hawkins pulled the trigger, she recognized Smith was alive for a while because she could hear him breathing, but she feared how it would look if she called the police, the report said.

“She felt as though she had been in a virtual reality video game so she went to sleep,” the report said. “When she woke up she was back in the real world and the spirits were gone.” She then called police.

Hawkins’ arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday morning in North Las Vegas Justice Court. She did not have an attorney listed in court records as of Monday night.

Anyone with additional information in the case may call the North Las Vegas Police Department at 702-633-9111 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 to remain anonymous.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Mike Shoro contributed to this report.