Domestic violence call leads to 2 deaths, officer shot

A domestic violence call turned deadly this morning when a man wanted for murder out of California and a woman were found dead in a home in the northwest valley.

A Las Vegas police officer was shot in the arm while responding to the incident.

Police were alerted to the situation by a Long Beach, Calif., woman who called them claiming that her sister was being battered by a murder and attempted murder suspect.

Officers responded to the home, at 6629 Nevada Classic Circle, near Rainbow Boulevard and Alexander Road, about 9:30 a.m., according to department spokesman Jacinto Rivera.

After arriving, the woman opened the front door and placed an 8-month-old child on the doorstep, according to Lt. Lew Roberts. The suspect then pulled the woman back inside and shut the door. Officers grabbed the child, and as they were walking away from the home, the suspect fired several times at them from a second-story window, Roberts said.

One officer was struck in the arm and taken to University Medical Center with nonlife threatening injuries, according to Rivera.

Officers returned fire at the suspect, prompting a 2 1/2-hour standoff that ended when SWAT officers entered the home around noon.

Inside, they found the woman and the suspect dead. Police believe the suspect shot the girlfriend before turning the gun on himself.

Police confirmed that the suspect, who was in his mid-30s, was wanted by the Long Beach Police Department. His name was not released. Details of his crimes in California were not immediately available. Rivera said the child was not harmed during the incident and is in the care of Child Protective Services.

For several hours that morning, the boy was in the care of 69-year-old Manuel Yalinkatian, an Armenian immigrant who lives two doors away from the shooting.

He said he woke that morning to forceful knocks on his front door by police. They had a child with them, he said, and they wanted him to care for it temporarily.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “He started to cry, and I didn’t have anything to eat for him or anything.”

He said he didn’t know his neighbors — who he said had lived in the home for nearly a year — and had never seen the child before. Every Saturday the man living in the house would sit in the garage with the garage door open and drink beer, Yalinkatian said.

Don Lee, who lives further down the street from Yalinkatian, said he was woken up by his wife, who claimed to hear three gunshots. The 61-year-old looked out his window and saw officers walking in his neighbor’s yard and back yard armed with shotguns.

Later, he heard officers shouting, “Alan, we know you’re in there. Exit the residence. Do it now.”

“They kept saying that over and over,” Lee said.

The wounded officer, whose name was not released, was expected to be released from the hospital sometime today, Rivera said.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.