Airman killed in standoff with police was father, decorated veteran
The retired airman shot and killed by Las Vegas police during a standoff in late February was a father and decorated veteran who specialized in warplane bombs and missiles.
Francis “Frank” Lamantia Spivey, 43, served in the U.S. Air Force from August 1990 to July 2014, when he retired as a master sergeant, according to Air Force spokesman Michael Dickerson. Spivey’s job was as a munitions systems specialist; he tested, assembled and transported ammunition.
He was a recipient of the Air Force Achievement Medal, Outstanding Unit Award with Valor Device and the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, Dickerson said.
Spivey donned his Air Force uniform one last time Feb. 25, and went to the open stairwell of his apartment building armed with an AR 15.
He called police to say he may kill himself, then stood outside his unit at Eagle Trace apartments, 5370 E. Craig Road, with a gun pointed to his chin.
Two hours later — after firing 23 rounds into the air and at nearby units and threatening Las Vegas police officers — it was a Metro sniper who shot him down.
Amid the shouting and gunfire Terry and Cindy O’Neil heard a knock at their door at 12:15 a.m. The couple’s apartment was directly below Spivey’s, they said. A Las Vegas police officer made them get out.
While hurriedly getting dressed to leave, Cindy O’Neil said Spivey’s rifle “sprayed” bullets.
“We didn’t know which direction he was shooting,” she said. “We were in the blind.”
Spivey had fired his weapon in multiple directions, according to police. Bullet holes were found in the stairway walls outside his apartment and in a building across the street.
Terry O’Neil, a U.S Navy veteran, said he wasn’t afraid because he had three combat tours of duty during his 22 years of service.
“When we got evacuated, I stayed right around the corner,” he said. “I was there for the whole thing.”
At one point, Terry O’Neil said, he told police he would talk to Spivey, whom he called “Frank.” They were friends, he said, and Terry O’Neil hoped he could calm him.
“They didn’t give me a chance to negotiate with him,” Terry O’Neil said. He questioned whether police did enough to save Spivey’s life.
The O’Neils said Spivey was in the middle of a divorce and had a troubled relationship with his current girlfriend, whom he was heard yelling for in footage from a police body camera.
But the O’Neils did not rule out post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in the Air Force as a cause for Spivey’s actions that night.
Military records show that since 2000, Spivey was stationed all over the world. His stops included Royal Air Force base in Lakenheath, United Kingdom; Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas; and Kunsan Air Force Base in South Korea.
He entered the military during the Gulf War, according to the Air Force.
Record of Spivey’s deployment history was not available, Dickerson said.
He had no criminal history, according to Las Vegas police.
Most recently, Spivey was working as a security officer at Boulder Station, Terry O’Neil said. He apparently lost his job and was last seen leaving for work Feb. 17.
Station Casinos spokeswoman Lori Nelson said in an email that the company does not “discuss personnel matters.”
Spivey had two children. Adult son Kris Spivey said his father was not a “monster.”
“All I will say is he was a damn good father and a damn good man,” he wrote in a Facebook message.
Contact Kimberly De La Cruz at Kdelacruz@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @KimberlyinLV.
