LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas man is accused of shooting his wife’s friend seven times as she attempted to help the wife pack her belongings after the two separated. The wife was also shot, according to the arrest report for 55-year-old Walter Pendleton.
Pendleton was taken into custody following the shooting on Tuesday, May 9, at an apartment building in the 4000 block of Pecos Road near E. Alexander Road in the northeast valley.
Las Vegas Metropolitan police arrived at the scene shortly after 5 p.m. after receiving a 911 call from a neighbor who told police they heard gunshots and a woman screaming.
When police entered the apartment, the report said officers saw a man, later identified as Pendleton, sitting against the wall with a woman, later identified as his wife, on top of him holding his right hand to the ground. There was a gun in Pendleton’s hand which police removed, the report said.
The woman who had been helping the wife lay nearby suffering from several gunshot wounds. According to the arrest report, the wife told police she had gone to the apartment to retrieve personal property because Pendleton had been served an eviction notice and the two were separated. She said her husband was intoxicated and upset and while she was packing, he came up behind her, grabbed her neck, and placed a gun to her head.
As she pushed the gun away, he fired one round hitting her in the forearm, and then pointed the gun at her friend and “told her she was collateral damage and started to shoot her several times.”
The friend, whose name was redacted in the report, was transported to Sunrise Hospital where she underwent surgery. The report said an emergency room doctor told police she had gunshot wounds to her neck, arms, side, and back and bullets penetrated her liver and intestines.
The report said the wife was able to knock Pendleton to the floor by jumping on him after the shooting and then holding his hand with the gun to the ground until police arrived.
Pendleton is facing nine charges: Two attempted murder charges, an assault domestic violence charge, a domestic battery charge, a battery resulting in substantial bodily injury charge, and four counts of discharging a weapon inside an occupied structure.
He is currently in custody at the Clark County Detention Center being held on $100,000 bail. His next court date is May 15.
Court records show Pendleton was arrested for domestic battery in 2021 but the Clark County District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute. It doesn’t give a reason why but usually has to do with a lack of evidence or witnesses.
