Police had earlier responded to location of murder-suicide

By Mary Manning

Monday, March 9, 2009 | 5:03 p.m.

North Las Vegas Police Department officers responded to an attempted suicide call on Oct. 28, 2008, at the same residence where a domestic standoff in February led to the deaths of a man and a woman.

Sgt. Tim Bedwell, spokesman for the police department, released the additional information today.

Although police wouldn't say if the man or the woman had been the reason for the emergency call, Bedwell said friends and family indicated it was the man.

Police and Nellis Air Force Base officials say they are cooperating in the investigation of a domestic dispute that led to the deaths of the husband and wife on Feb. 20.

Capt. Amanda Ferrell, a spokeswoman at Nellis, said that whether 25-year-old Cpt. Jason Klinkenberg was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after his service in Iraq is one of the areas under investigation.

Klinkenberg, a vehicle operator with the 99th Logistical Readiness Squadron based at Nellis, served in Iraq from Sept. 1, 2005 until Jan. 25, 2006, Ferrell said.

North Las Vegas Police officers and a SWAT team responded to a standoff at 5:36 a.m. Feb. 20 after a call from a friend of the wife, 23-year-old Crystal L. Klingkenberg of North Las Vegas. She reported and she and her husband had argued and he got a gun out and was hold it to her head, Bedwell said.

Officers arrived at the Craig Ranch Villa Apartments at 370 Casa Norte Drive in about five minutes and knocked on the door, Bedwell said. The man answered the door, but he was verbally abusive, and when he went back inside the apartment, he fired a shot out a window at officers, Bedwell said.

When SWAT members entered the apartment about two hours after the standoff began, they found both a man and a woman dead, Bedwell said.

The Clark County Coroner's Office said Crystal Klinkenberg died of a homicide from a gunshot wound and that Jason Klinkenberg's death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

"Nellis is obviously coordinating with them (North Las Vegas Police)," Ferrell said today. She also said Nellis personnel were working with family members.

Nellis officials plan "a very serious and thorough investigation," Ferrell said, including reviews of Klinkenberg's service in Iraq and his medical records.