Police ID elderly woman fatally shot by daughter’s boyfriend

By Mary Manning

Published Thursday, March 5, 2009 | 10:18 p.m.

Updated Friday, March 6, 2009 | 3:29 p.m.

The elderly woman shot to death Thursday night before the gunman turned the weapon on himself has been identified as 84-year-old Sophie Jozwiak of Las Vegas, the Clark County Coroner’s Office said today.

The woman died of a gunshot wound to the chest and the death was ruled a homicide, a spokeswoman for the coroner’s office said.

The gunman in critical condition after shooting himself but is expected to live, Metro Police said.

John Delong was booked into the Clark County Detention Center "in abstentia" on a homicide charge while he remains under treatment at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Officer Bill Cassell, Metro Police spokesman said.

Delong has been arrested before, but police didn't release the charges.

Police received a call from an apartment complex at 1401 E. Reno Ave., north of Hacienda Avenue and east of Maryland Parkway shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday. When officers arrived they found an elderly woman dead on the floor of an apartment, police said.

A man became angry with his girlfriend and her mother inside the apartment, police said. A preliminary investigation revealed that the three people argued inside the apartment when the man picked up a weapon, shot the girlfriend's mother, then himself, police said.

Homicide detectives said the man shot himself in the face, but was alive when police arrived and was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center's Trauma Center, where he underwent emergency surgery.

The man's girlfriend escaped from the apartment and called police.