Henderson police report 214 casings from two locations

Henderson police reported recovering 214 spent shell casings across two locations connected to the October 3 fatal shooting of 48-year-old Ropati Tauiliili. Police said 80 were found at a residence on Club Crest Way and 134 at a cemetery near Eastern Avenue and Patrick Lane, where two officers shot Tauiliili. He died at the scene, according to police.

At an October 8 briefing, police described a sequence of events spanning roughly six hours and released 911 audio and video. The separate recovery counts matter: the 214 casings were collected across the residence and cemetery, not all at the fatal-shooting scene.

Calls began at a Club Crest Way home

Police said officers first responded at about 3:45 p.m. to a reported domestic disturbance at a home in the 2000 block of Club Crest Way. Police accounts of that initial call also described other family members at the residence.

Later calls reporting gunfire came in at about 8:08 p.m. Police said an adult woman was found at the residence with two gunshot wounds. She was treated at a hospital and released. Local reporting identified her as Tauiliili’s sister.

Police reported recovering 80 spent casings at the home. The other 134 were recovered at the cemetery, where police said the two officers fatally shot Tauiliili. The separate location counts add up to 214.

Investigation remained ongoing

KTNV separately reported a police estimate that Tauiliili fired 214 rounds. That estimate is not the same measure as the 214 casings police reported recovering across the two locations: one is an estimate of rounds fired, while the other is a count of casings recovered.

Local reporting identified the officers as Julian Diaz and Thomas Whitney and said they were on paid administrative leave while the investigation continued. That was their reported status after the October 8 briefing.

The briefing added a public account of the reported disturbance, later gunfire and fatal encounter, alongside the audio and video released by police. The shooting and other events described here are police accounts. The investigation was still ongoing in coverage following the briefing; no final investigative or legal conclusion was reported.