Parents blame state for shooting

Jen Lawson

Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.

Jeffrey Allan Gaddis worked as a manager at a courier service and was described by his former boss as an excellent employee.

But under the surface, struggling with addictions to gambling and an undiagnosed mental illness, Gaddis wanted to die, his parents said.

On Tuesday, three months after he allegedly tried to get Henderson Police to shoot him, 28-year-old Gaddis robbed a Walgreens, then pointed a gun at Metro Police officers, who shot and killed him, police said.

Gaddis' parents said they don't blame the police, they blame the state's lack of mental health services for the uninsured.

They said they hope that Gov. Kenny Guinn uses some of the state's budget surplus to shore up those services.

"Mr. Guinn, in his infinite wisdom, needs to make sure the mental health facilities in this state are funded," Larry Gaddis, Jeffrey Gaddis' father, said.

Jeffrey Gaddis, a 1994 Chapparal High School graduate, had been wrestling with drug and gambling addictions for some time. Police said he was arrested in May and July and charged with illegal possession of prescription drugs.

His mother, Kathy Gaddis, said he had been going to a methodone clinic to get off painkillers, but she suspected he was still taking the pills along with the methodone.

Gaddis' problems escalated in October, his mother said.

That month, he quit his job as the process division manager at Legal Express, a local business that delivers legal documents.

"He got to the point where he couldn't function," Kathy Gaddis said, blaming his problems on his suspected mental illness and not on the gambling and drugs, which she said he "was using these things to take care of the pain."

On Oct. 22 Larry Gaddis called Henderson Police and said his son was suicidal and "it was his intention to have the police shoot him," according to the police report.

When officers arrived at the apartment on Mountain Vista Street, Gaddis barricaded himself in the bathroom and refused to open the door. An officer kicked the door in, and Gaddis cried and screamed, "just ... shoot me. I want to die," the report says.

Gaddis' mother told police that she had not seen him in two days, the report says, and she had been worried.

She said he planned to commit suicide by taking an overdose of pills, which he had been hoarding. The day before Gaddis left notes on several personal items indicating who should get them after he died.

"When she confronted him about these issues," the report says, "He stated that everyone would be better off if he were dead and that if the police were called he would force (police) to kill him."

Police took Gaddis to University Medical Center for a mental evaulation, but he was discharged just hours later.

A few days before Christmas, friends told Larry and Kathy Gaddis that their son had a gun. They checked the closet, where they store their handgun, and it was missing. They reported the theft to Metro Police and indicated they were almost positive their son had stolen it.

She believes this was the same gun he pointed at police on Tuesday.

The shooting stemmed from Gaddis' alleged attempt to rob a Walgreens at 5011 E. Flamingo Road near Nellis Boulevard shortly before 1 p.m.

Police said Gaddis tried to steal some CDs from the store and flashed a gun at employees who confronted him. Because he allegedly threatened the workers with a weapon the crime was elevated from shoplifting to robbery.

Gaddis left the store and drove away in a green, older, four-door Plymouth. Officers responding to the drug store's 911 call spotted Gaddis' car.

After a 1 1/2-mile chase, an officer performed a "precision immobilization technique" in which his front fender touched the Gaddis' car's rear fender, causing Gaddis' car to spin and stall.

Gaddis got out of the car and aimed a handgun at the officers, police said. Three shot at him and he died in the eastbound lanes of Flamingo Road.

"Given the situation that (the police) were faced with, they did the best they could," Kathy Gaddis said. "I have no blame to place on them. The officers need to know that we know they did what they had to do."

When he was himself, Kathy Gaddis said her son was "fun and loving and kind and supportive and an excellent uncle to his nieces and he had a dog he loved dearly. He was a good friend and he wasn't a mean or violent person."

"When he wasn't himself, nothing mattered," she said.

Kathy Gaddis said it is nearly impossible to negotiate the web of mental health services and find one that will accept those without insurance. Her son didn't feel he was worthy of help, she said, but she thinks if assistance had been easier to access things might have been different.

"We want (the services) to be out there for other people who need it," she said. "If it had been there for Jeff maybe he could have used it. He was 28 years old and we couldn't force him to get help."

John Nicholson, manager of Legal Express, said he was "absolutely" surprised that Gaddis had been shot by police.

"He was a good employee," he said. "There are a lot of people here who are sad about this, including me."

This was the first officer-involved shooting of 2005.

Sheriff Bill Young said he was displeased with the recent spate of police shootings -- Tuesday's was the fifth in just over a month.

But, he added, "they were all justified, in my opinion."

The three officers who shot at Gaddis are on routine paid administrative leave pending a coroner's inquest, which has not yet been scheduled. Their identities are to be released this afternoon, 48 hours after the shooting, in accordance with Metro's policy.