Coroner IDs Vegas officer who killed family, committed suicide

The Las Vegas police lieutenant who killed his wife, son and himself was Hans Pieter Walters, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner said in a statement Tuesday.

Walters told a dispatcher Monday that he had shot his family and threatened to set his home on fire and harm any officers who responded, authorities said. When police arrived, they found the family’s Boulder City, Nev., home partially engulfed in flames and Walters in the doorway with a gun. He ignored police commands and went back into the house, authorities said.

When a SWAT team entered the home, they found Walters, his 46-year-old wife, Kathryn Michelle, and their 5-year-old son, Maximilian, all with fatal gunshot wounds to the head.

Walters joined the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department 21 years ago and was promoted to lieutenant in 2010. His wife worked for the department 13 years before leaving voluntarily in 2004, officials said.

During a brief news conference Monday, Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie -- the elected head of the police department -- spoke of the loss: “Anyone who has been in law enforcement for any amount of time is usually prepared for any scenario. No one, however, can prepare us for something like this.�

TIMELINE: U.S. mass shootings

ALSO:

Disturbed felon had gun permit, arsenal

U.S. high school graduation rate highest in decades

Lotto winner reburied; cyanide poisoning still to be reconfirmed

[email protected]

@marisagerber