Woman called police for help minutes before she was fatally shot

Minutes before she was fatally shot, a 37-year-old woman called Las Vegas police asking for help, saying her husband was “suffering from a mental breakdown,” according to an arrest report.

At 11:14 p.m. Friday, Viktorija Canevik Alex called 911 to ask that her husband, Michael Alex, be transported to a hospital, the report said. Metropolitan Police Department officers and firefighters were dispatched to the home at 7000 block of Hunts Corner street, near the 215 Beltway and Centennial Parkway, but by the time they arrived 17 minutes later, the woman had already been shot.

According to Alex’s arrest report, released to the Review-Journal on Tuesday, the 37-year-old man fatally shot his wife and pointed the gun at his 11-year-old son, “and was going to shoot him but ‘something happened’.” The man told detectives “he had a listening device implanted in his mouth and that he was tired of them listening to him.”

Alex told detectives he believed his wife and son were “involved with the implanting of the listening device,” the report said.

Seven minutes after Canevik Alex called 911 on Friday night, she called back and said “he shot me.” While 911 dispatchers were on the line, the woman stopped answering questions, and they heard “another loud bang,” the report said.

Two minutes later, the couple’s child called 911 and said his father had shot his mother, the report said. Metro homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said Saturday that the child was not harmed.

Officers arrived at the home at 11:31 p.m. — 17 minutes after Canevik Alex called 911 and eight minutes after her son called — to find the man standing in the driveway. Canevik Alex was lying in the front doorway suffering from gunshot wounds.

She died before firefighters were able to get her to a hospital, the coroner’s office said. She died of a gunshot wound to the chest, and the coroner’s office ruled her death a homicide.

Alex agreed to speak with detectives at Metro’s headquarters that night, the report said. He told detectives that after he shot his wife and pointed the gun at his son, he walked out the front door, which locked behind him. He said he could hear Canevik Alex “breathing loudly,” so he forced the door open again and started performing CPR on her.

Alex said he then left the home again and shot twice at a neighbor’s home “because they were involved in the listening device placed in his mouth.” He said he then threw the gun down in the front yard, the report said.

Detectives found two bullet holes in the neighbor’s home and a handgun lying outside. There were three cartridge cases outside the home, and two in the living room.

Alex was charged with murder with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, and two counts of discharging a gun into an occupied structure or vehicle, all felonies, court records show. He remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Tuesday without bail.

Court records show that from 2010-16, Alex had been arrested five times in Clark County on suspicion of drug possession, but he was convicted only in two misdemeanor cases — once in 2010 and once in 2014. It did not appear he had any other arrest history in the county.

Alex is due to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on July 23, according to court records.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.