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“Troublesome” suicide victim’s name released
A Carson City man who threatened suicide and who also issued a threat to anyone who entered his apartment, thereby triggering a big police response including the Carson City SWAT team, has been identified.
He was Frank Bindley, 55, a former police officer with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. The report came into the 9-1-1 dispatch center that a gunshot had been heard coming from an apartment on South Carson Street. There had also been a report that the shooting may have been a homicide. First arriving deputies set up a perimeter around the complex to intercept anyone fleeing the area. None was seen or heard.
Deputies were told that a man with a gun was barricaded inside apartment 68 and had threatened anyone who came in after him. At that point the SWAT team was activated. In the meantime, two deputies, who belong to the SWAT team, managed to gain entry to the apartment and found Bindley sitting in a chair with a serious wound to his chest. They say he was still holding the gun. They retrieved the weapon and summoned paramedics who were staged just down the driveway. They quickly rushed in to try to save Bindley’s life. They called for a Careflight chopper. But within ten minutes they cancelled it. Bindley had died.
Normally the news media doesn’t identify suicide victims. But in this case, the flurry of police activity and a threat to responding officers triggered the public’s right to know what their first line responders were going through while protecting life and property. It’s often a difficult and dangerous job indeed.
This story has another tragic element in that Bindley’s sons are both entering law enforcement themselves, perhaps inspired by their father’s service in the Las Vegas area. Bindley’s older son, who lived with his father at the apartment, had recently become a Carson City Sheriff’s Deputy and has won wide praise and demonstrated great promise even as a rookie law enforcement officer. One deputy on scene last evening commented to NewsCarsonCity.com that Bindley’s son is a rare example of an up-and-coming professional lawman, and that “the department is blessed to have him” as part of the Carson City Sheriff’s Office. The officer’s younger brother is a Sheriff’s Explorer, a common launching pad for entering law enforcement.
Frank Bindley had been with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department for a number of years, and had been forced to retire after suffering an injury in an accident. Bindley’s wife died in 2007.