A 40-year-old Las Vegas man told a 911 dispatcher that he had killed his parents and did not want to live before another gunshot was heard over the phone, bringing a tragic family shooting near UNLV to an end.
Abdelhafiz Abdelgader made the emergency call shortly after 10 a.m. on Sept. 16 from an apartment in the 1600 block of East Rochelle Avenue, near East Flamingo Road and South Maryland Parkway. During the call, he spoke about his family, his brother’s death and his own physical pain while a dispatcher tried to persuade him to put down his handgun.
The call lasted roughly nine minutes. More than four minutes were spent with the dispatcher attempting to keep Abdelgader from further harming himself.
At one point, Abdelgader said he no longer wanted to live and explained that he had killed his family because, in his words, they had already lost his brother and would now lose him as well.
The conversation became increasingly distressing before a gunshot was heard. The line then went silent.
Police officers arrived at the apartment and found three people suffering from gunshot wounds. Abdelgader’s parents, 69-year-old Ibrahim Jihar and 64-year-old Jimea Mahmoud, were pronounced dead at the scene. Abdelgader was taken to Sunrise Hospital and later died.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office determined that Jihar and Mahmoud died from multiple gunshot wounds and ruled their deaths homicides. Abdelgader also died from multiple gunshot wounds, with his death ruled a suicide.
The incident initially left investigators trying to determine what had led to the shooting. Police said there was no indication that officers had previously been called to the residence for domestic-related complaints.
The newly released 911 recording provides more insight into Abdelgader’s state of mind in the minutes before the shooting ended. During the conversation, he talked about his brother’s death and said he felt that other people were giving him a hard time. He also complained about pain in his back and shoulders, telling the dispatcher that his body was broken.
He also appeared to be thinking about what would happen after his death. During the call, he discussed leaving money to help pay for his parents’ funeral expenses and mentioned his sister, who was in Africa.
The tragedy has also prompted members of the family’s close-knit Eritrean Islamic community in Las Vegas to rally around the surviving relatives. A fundraiser has been established to help cover burial expenses for all three family members.
The fundraiser’s organizer described the family as close friends and said the deaths had deeply affected the local community. As of the latest update, the campaign was seeking $35,000 for funeral and burial costs.
The shooting happened inside a residential complex near UNLV and was treated by authorities as an isolated incident. There was no indication of an ongoing threat to the wider public.
The case now leaves a clearer picture of the final moments before the deaths, but the full circumstances that led Abdelgader to kill his parents and then take his own life remain a deeply painful part of the investigation.
