Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

law enforcement:

Distraught woman wanted police to kill her, arrest report says

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Kimberly Kardell

The woman arrested after holding her child hostage in a standoff that lasted more than three hours Saturday at a northeast valley apartment had hoped to die at the hands of police, according to the Metro Police report of her arrest released Monday.

Police said Kimberley Kardell, 34, Las Vegas, called 911 at 7:10 a.m. Saturday from the Budget Suites apartments at 2219 N. Rancho Drive, told them she was crazy and threatened to kill herself and her year-old son, whom she was holding at knifepoint.

After several phone calls and conversations between responding police, hostage negotiators and Kardell, who could be seen through windows of the apartment holding a knife to her son, a SWAT team made its way into the apartment, safely removed the boy and took Kardell into custody.

After being medically cleared at University Medical Center, Kardell was taken to Metro headquarters. There, according to the report, police interviewed her about the day’s events.

She told police she originally called 911 because she was “stressed and desperate to get help for her son. She stated she could no longer provide for him the way he needed. Kardell stated she wanted to commit ‘suicide by cop’ and never intended to hurt her son,” the report said.

Earlier, during the hostage situation, Kardell told a Metro officer via telephone that she was upset that her former boyfriend had left her and had become involved with other women. Although the former boyfriend resides elsewhere in northeast Las Vegas, Kardell said the man lived above her and was listening in on her. Kardell also said her name was "Sophia Banana Hammack" and that her old name was Kim Kardell.

When the SWAT team entered the apartment, officers said Kardell was stabbing herself with scissors.

She later told police she had used the “scissors and every available knife in her residence to try and slash her throat and wrists. She stated that she could not ‘even commit suicide right,’” the report said.

Kardell also told police she had smoked methamphetamine earlier Saturday and had heard the voices of her ex-boyfriend and her friends both encouraging and dissuading her from committing suicide, the report said.

Kardell has been arrested on counts of assault with a deadly weapon, first-degree kidnapping with a weapon, child abuse and endangerment with a deadly weapon, allowing a child to be present with controlled substances and resisting a police officer. She is being held without bail in the Clark County Detention Center.

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