Formal charges pending in homicide at senior-living apartment complex

By Gregan Wingert

Monday, April 9, 2012 | 5:05 p.m.

Prosecutors are weighing charges against a 63-year-old man who called police Saturday to report that he shot and killed a neighbor outside his apartment.

Roger Foley, Las Vegas, was arrested Saturday and booked into Clark County Detention Center, according to a Metro Police arrest report released Monday. Foley is being held on one count of murder with a deadly weapon and one count of attempted murder with a deadly weapon.

Around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, police received a call from the mother of Ronald Mattox, a 55-year-old who was shot multiple times in the neck and torso inside a senior living apartment complex in the 4100 block of Bonanza Road, according to the arrest report. A minute later, 911 dispatch received a call from Foley, who reported he had just shot and killed a man outside his apartment, the report says.

When authorities and medical personnel arrived, they found Mattox in a hallway outside his apartment and pronounced him dead, the report says.

Police said Betty Mattox, the mother of the deceased man, appeared to have suffered a gunshot wound to her upper right arm and chest during the . She was transported to University Medical Center.

Foley told officers he was on his way to target shooting and was carrying a 9 mm handgun in a briefcase and pushing a small cart with ammunition when he encountered his neighbor Ronald Mattox in the hallway, the arrest report says.

The two got into a verbal altercation that Foley said escalated into a physical assault, the arrest report says.

Foley told police he felt threatened, removed the handgun from the case and began shooting Mattox, the report said.

Betty Mattox said her son was out in the hall testing his remote-controlled helicopter when she heard the two men arguing, the report says. Betty Mattox opened the apartment door, and Ronald Mattox told his mother to call the police. A bullet hit her when she turned to re-enter her apartment, the report said.

Detectives recovered 11 9 mm cartridge cases and several in the hallway outside the Mattox apartment, the report said.

The Clark County District Attorney’s Office is referring the case to the Nevada Attorney General’s Office to consider formal charges against Foley. A relative of Foley’s works in the District Attorney’s Office, which prompted transfer of the case to the state attorney general, said Tess Driver, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney’s Office.

An initial court appearance for Foley is scheduled for Wednesday, his 64th birthday.