Man shot by Henderson Police says, ‘I feel lucky … that I ain’t dead’

By Dave Toplikar

Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012 | 2:02 p.m.

Pulling back his shirt, Tony McNeill revealed a large hole in his right upper chest where he had been struck in late December by a Henderson Police officer’s .40-caliber slug.

A clear plastic tube was taped to the hole. Brownish liquid was oozing from it into a pumping device he wore on his waist.

Once suicidal, "I feel pretty damn lucky. I feel lucky ... that I ain't dead," McNeill told reporters Tuesday morning during an impromptu press conference outside a Henderson Justice Court courtroom.

The 54-year-old Henderson man, who is free on $24,000 bail, had come to court to deal with felony assault and weapons charges stemming from a Dec. 26 confrontation with police.

McNeill had been scheduled to have his preliminary hearing set by Justice of the Peace David Gibson.

However, Public Defender Harmony Letizia asked the judge to postpone the hearing. She said McNeill was highly medicated from recent surgery. Gibson reset the next hearing for 9:30 a.m. March 6.

Outside the courtroom, McNeill was willing to talk to reporters about his experience.

"I got shot by a .40-caliber bullet," he said. "I had a .22 single-shot rifle."

McNeill said the patched-up hole near his clavicle was one of three bullet wounds he suffered when he was shot by police. One slug punctured his right lung. The third was in his side.

The shooting happened after McNeill’s mother, Charlene McNeill, contacted authorities when she heard gunshots Dec. 26 at the home she shared with her son and her husband.

She told officers that her son had a gun and was pointing it at himself.

The police report says Henderson Police Officers John Bellow, Kevin Perkins and Christopher Gerhard responded to the home in Country Hills condominiums at 698 South Racetrack Road, near Boulder Highway.

When the officers arrived, they stationed themselves about 30 feet away from the front door of the residence, the police report said.

Perkins said he saw the armed man come out of the condo holding a rifle, with its barrel pointed toward the ground. He then told the man to drop the weapon and surrender, but the man raised the rifle and pointed it toward the officers, the arrest report said.

The three officers all fired toward McNeil, the report said.

Asked Tuesday if his intention was to shoot at police or to have them shoot at him, he said "the latter would more ... The intention, in the first place, was for me to shoot myself."

McNeill said that his mother had called police to get him help.

"They near helped me all the way out," he said, sniffing.

He claims he never actually pointed his rifle at any of the officers.

"That was never, ever, ever my intention," he said. "I had never intended to hurt anyone else. Hurting myself was the main thing."

McNeil said he walked outside the home three to four times, "and there was cops everywhere."

"I never aimed the gun at people. They say I did, but I did not," he said. He said officers were behind a wall and he could see their helmets, but "there was no policeman standing in plain view."

He said the officers "were all ducked down."

"There was nobody that came to talk to me. My phone didn't ring and say 'Hey, come outside and put down your gun' or anything like that.

"When I walked out I had a little .22 rifle, which is a single shot," he said. "I mean, I'm not going to take on an army with a gun that shoots one bullet."

Told officers said he aimed at them, McNeill said "there's no way I could have aimed at them. I walked out with it in one hand. And when I got shot, I threw the gun down."

After the shooting, he was taken by ambulance to Sunrise Hospital.

Police kept him secluded from family and friends and under a false name in the hospital, he said.

After five weeks under guard in the hospital, he said he was finally allowed to call his mother.

McNeill had his first day in court on Jan. 23.

He said that since being bailed out by a friend about a week ago, he went back to the hospital, where he underwent surgery again. He said he has to go see a chest surgeon on Wednesday.

"I don't know where that's going to end. I have a punctured lung," he said.

He said he has not been receiving any treatment for his mental health issues.