Slayings suspect describes rage

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

Bert Matthews, the 33-year-old Las Vegas resident charged with killing his father and a friend on Thanksgiving Day, told police the shooting started as a suicide gone awry and turned into a double homicide when he was taunted by the victims, according to the arrest report.

"He suggested that his rage took over because of a pending divorce, his unemployment and the terrible relationship with his father," the report says.

Matthews said he and his father, 61-year-old Berter "Harry" Matthews, had been drinking Thursday morning at their home on Madeline Drive near Decatur and Lake Mead boulevards.

They were expecting relatives and Harry Matthews was preparing the holiday dinner when the son and father got into an argument. They had "a very volatile relationship," the younger Matthews told police.

Bert Matthews pulled a .38-caliber revolver from under his bed and went into the kitchen, where he began yelling at his father. Matthews told his father he was going to kill himself, and he put the gun to his chin, the police report says.

Matthews told police "his dad grabbed the weapon and pulled it away and Matthews pulled the trigger, striking his father in the leg," according to the report. "His dad said, 'You have shot me in the leg. Why don't you shoot me in the head!' "

So, Matthews did, killing his father, he told police.

His friend, Byron Zackler, age unavailable, was playing pool in a different room, and when he heard the struggle, he shouted, "Let the (expletive) kill himself!"

That enraged Matthews, the report says, so he reloaded the gun and killed Zackler.

Matthews told police he wanted to kill himself next, but instead he put the gun in his room, called 911 and told the call-taker he had just shot his father and friend, the report says.

When police arrived at the house, he said he was "very sorry for what happened." But all his life, his father had treated him badly and he could not put up with it anymore, he told police.

Matthews was arrested and charged with two counts of murder with a weapon.