LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A murder-suicide on the east side of Las Vegas has drawn attention to a concerning trend in domestic violence cases, despite overall incidents being down valley-wide.
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Las Vegas Metropolitan Police were called to the 1500 block of Sandhill Road in east Las Vegas where they found a tragic scene. According to authorities, a man in his 90s woke up to find his son standing over his wife in the living room. The son then turned the gun on himself.
"Unbelievable. I'm in shock," said Cindi Campbell, who lives nearby.
"The father then stated that the son then put the gun to his head and fired, so it is a very tragic incident," said Lt. Robert Price, Metro Homicide.
According to data from Metro, the number of domestic violence incidents is down overall. However, domestic violence remains the leading cause of homicides according to Metro. So far this year there have been 10 domestic violence homicides, up from 7 last year.
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"I think what we're seeing is that we are having more firearms involved," said Elizabeth Abdur-Raheem, the Executive Director of the Nevada Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence.
"53% of these women killed by men were killed by firearms. However, in Nevada last year, 84% of our domestic violence homicides were by firearm. So the increase of firearms in Nevada and our firearm culture causes things to be much more lethal here," Abdur-Raheem said.
Linda Perez, CEO of The Shade Tree, an organization helping victims of domestic violence, responded to the murder-suicide.
"This is very typical of what we're seeing right now is murder-suicides, and it's very important that we educate our families and our friends, our loved ones, because that is a problem you don't even have to be in that situation, but you could be around it. You could be a bystander," Perez said.
Campbell says she knew the couple involved in Tuesday's tragedy.
"I never would have thought it could happen. To such a nice couple. You know, nobody knew he had it in him. Nobody knew he owned a gun," Campbell said.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada has resources that may be able to help. You can find those resources by clicking the link here.
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