Trial set for man shot by Henderson Police officers

By Dave Toplikar

Monday, May 14, 2012 | 12:51 p.m.

By the time Tony McNeill will stand trial on assault and weapons charges, it will be nearly 11 months since three Henderson Police officers shot him Dec. 26 outside his condominium after he allegedly pointed a rifle at one of them.

McNeill, who spent five weeks under police guard at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center recovering from three bullet wounds, appeared Monday morning in Clark County District Court for his arraignment on the charges.

McNeill told Hearing Master Melisa De La Garza that he pleaded not guilty to three counts of discharging a firearm at or into a structure or vehicle and to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

De La Garza set his trial for 10:30 a.m. Nov. 4 before Judge Valorie Vega. A calendar call hearing was set for 9:30 a.m. Nov. 1.

McNeill, 54, remains out of custody on $24,000 bail.

At McNeill’s preliminary hearing in April, the three Henderson officers, Kevin Perkins, John Bellow and David S. Gibson, testified that they were called to the home in response to a 911 call. They had positioned themselves outside McNeill's home in Country Hills condominiums at 698 South Racetrack Road, near Boulder Highway.

The 911 call came from McNeill’s mother, who testified that her son was acting suicidal. She testified that he fired his rifle in a bedroom, then came out into the living room with the rifle pointed at his own neck. The 911 dispatcher urged her to leave the home, so she did so with her disabled husband, she said at the preliminary hearing.

The officers said when McNeill emerged later from the home, Perkins told McNeill to drop the weapon, but McNeill didn’t respond.

Perkins said McNeill told him "that he saw me and that I was either going to kill him or he was going to kill me."

When McNeill raised the barrel of his .22-caliber rifle, all three officers said they thought he was going to shoot Perkins, so all three fired.

McNeill didn’t testify at his preliminary hearing, but he told reporters on Feb. 7 that his intention was to kill himself — not to shoot at the police.