Officer identified in potential “suicide by cop” incident

By Mary Manning

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008 | 11:33 a.m.

Metro Police today identified the officer who fired at a suspect in a potential "suicide by cop" as Timothy Townley.

Townley, 25, has been employed with Metro Police since November 2001 and is assigned to the Valley Patrol Division at the Northwest Area Command.

Police gave this report of Monday's incident in the 5500 block of Painted Mirage Road:

Uniformed officers responded to a 911 caller who said he wanted to commit "suicide by cop." When police arrived at the northwest valley neighborhood at 6:53 p.m. Monday and found a man with a handgun standing in front of a house. Police identified themselves and ordered 42-year-old Roger Fitzpatrick to put his weapon down and surrender. Fitzpatrick fired two shots into the air and then pointed his weapon at police. Townley fired one shot, missing Fitzpatrick, who immediately surrendered.

After Fitzpatrick was taken to an area hospital for medical and psychiatric evaluation, he was arrested and booked into Clark County Detention Center on three counts of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, a felony, and two counts of discharging a firearm in a public place, a gross misdemeanor.

Per department policy, Metro Police withhold the name of an officer involved in a shooting incident for 48 hours.