Police said brother may have killed brother in self-defense Friday night

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Saturday, March 18, 2017 | 3:25 p.m.

No arrests have been made in a domestic-violence incident in which a man fatally shot his brother who was armed with a large knife Friday in a northwest valley neighborhood, according to Metro Police.

Once the investigation is completed, its results will be turned over to Clark County prosecutors who will decide whether to file charges or not, police said.

The gunman, 22, and his brother, 18, on Saturday had not been publicly identified by police or by the Clark County coroner's office.

Officers and medical crews were called about 3 p.m. to a house in the 10200 block of Yarmouth Sea Court, near Grand Teton Drive and Hualapai Way, police said. The 18-year-old man, who suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, died at University Medical Center.

An investigation determined that an undisclosed argument escalated to the point that a father and his younger son were involved in a physical struggle, police said. The older brother intervened and fired off a round from a gun, fatally wounding his brother, who was armed with a knife.

One of the parents reported the shooting to a 911 operator, said Metro homicide Lt. Dan McGrath in a Friday briefing broadcast online.

Detectives continued to try to piece the sequence of events that led to the shooting, McGrath said. They were going to be reviewing the 911 call as well as body cameras from first-responding officers to see if any of the initial statements differed.

"It's really sad," McGrath said. "The family is really distraught."

The Clark County District Attorney's Office will have the ultimate say on whether charges are filed, McGrath said, adding that apparent self-defense cases are a challenge to investigate.

Talks between detectives and the DA's office, in which they discuss facts, are extensive, McGrath said. In self-defense cases, the slain person being armed with a weapon plays a "big factor," he added.

McGrath advised the public to "please call the police" when a person witnesses or could hear a possible domestic-violence-related argument. "We can try to intervene before something happens."