Coroner: Man died of self-inflicted wound

By Mary Manning

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 | 2:01 p.m.

The Clark County coroner has ruled that suicide was the cause of death of a 30-year-old Henderson man who shot himself and was shot by police Sunday at a house near College Avenue and East Horizon Drive.

When Henderson police officers arrived about 2:20 a.m. Sunday after a woman said her husband was fighting with their roommate inside the housee, they opened a bedroom door to find the man, James Heitkotter, sitting on a bed with the barrel of a rifle at his head, police have said.

The officers said they ordered the man to put the gun down, but the man refused. The man then rose from the bed toward the officers with the rifle in his hands, police said.

The man fired the rifle almost simultaneously as two of the officers fired, Henderson police said.

The coroner said that the man died of a gunshot wound to the head and that a gunshot wound to the chest was a "significant condition" after the investigation, said Samantha Charles, public information officer for the coroner's office.

The names of the officers involved in the shooting will be released after 48 hours from the time of the incident, per police department policy. The two officers have been placed on routine paid administrative leave during the investigation of the incident.