Police investigate apparent murder-suicide

David Kihara

Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 | 11:21 a.m.

A 25-year-old man shot and killed his 22-year-old girlfriend before turning the gun on himself at an apartment complex on the 7000 block of East Lake Mead Boulevard this morning, police said.

Metro Sgt. Rocky Alby said the man shot his girlfriend then himself while a roommate was home at the couple's apartment at the Pyramid Apartments at 7055 E. Lake Mead Blvd. near Hollywood Boulevard.

Alby would not identify the victims. The victims' roommate, who was being interviewed by police, declined to comment.

Alby said the roommate called to report the incident to police at about 7 a.m.

One friend of the 25-year-old man, Austin Burchett, 29, said the man had been depressed lately.

"His girlfriend depressed him. I'm not going to lie about that," he said.

Burchett would not identify the victims.

He said the couple moved into the apartment complex about a year ago.

Burchett said the man often helped him work on his 1986 Chevrolet Blazer and he in turn would help the 25-year-old with his Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

"He never had any problems (with other people). He was cool as hell," Burchett said.

The 25-year-old man worked a construction job but Burchett had no details about the work.

The woman who was killed has a 6-year-old child who was staying with the child's father at the time of the shooting, Burchett and police said.

The couple's downstairs neighbor, Steven Coopersmith, 51, said that the alleged gunman was generally quiet. Coopersmith also could not identify the victims. He said he had little contact with the couple and would only see them in passing.

Coopersmith said he was home this morning near when the shooting occurred but that he did not hear anything.

"They were really nice. They weren't bad people," he said.