Incident: Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026, Henderson and Las Vegas, Nev. Footage released by the Henderson Police Department on Oct. 8, 2026.
It started as a domestic call. Around 3:45 p.m., Henderson officers were sent to a home on the 2000 block of Club Crest Way. Police say Ropati Tauiliili, 48, came to the house, battered several family members, pointed a gun at them and left before officers got there.
Around 8 p.m. he came back and fired a rifle into the home. A woman inside was hit twice. She was treated at a hospital and released. Officers later impounded about 80 spent casings and a high-capacity rifle drum magazine from behind the house.
Free — the opening chapterUnits Are SurroundedFive shootings in five months between members of the Soboba Indian Reservation and law enforcement in the Hemet area of Riverside County. My story about being in the middle of it. The full book is coming.Read how it starts
He then texted his employer. On a call the employer recorded, he said he had shot up the house, that he was not going back to prison, and that he would shoot it out with police and make them kill him. He had a 1997 murder conviction in Hawaii and served about 15 years.
Metro’s air unit found him in a cul-de-sac inside a cemetery off Eastern Avenue in Las Vegas. For about an hour he fired in every direction: at officers, at bystanders, at the helicopter and at the police drone. One round hit the front bumper of a civilian’s car. The people inside got to safety.
Henderson SWAT set up to the south. When the second SWAT officer arrived, he fired toward them. The two officers fired at the same moment, one rifle round each. Both rounds hit. He died at the scene despite medical aid. No officers or bystanders were hurt.
Police recovered a Beretta 9mm handgun, a Mossberg 5.56 rifle and 134 casings at the cemetery. Police estimate he fired 214 rounds that day. SWAT fired two.
Case status: both officers are on routine paid administrative leave. Henderson police say the investigation is ongoing and conclusions will come only after it is complete.
Before anyone rolled, the cops knew what they had: a man who had already shot up a house, hit a woman twice, and announced on a recorded line that he would shoot it out so police would kill him. A prior murder conviction behind all of it.
At the cemetery the first job was life. Officers pulled bystanders down and behind cover with rounds going off all around them. The second job was stopping the threat.
Henderson set it up with the long guns. Sniper units reaching out from a distance against a man who was already shooting at everyone was the safest option for the team. The two officers coordinated a simultaneous shot, one round each, and it ended there.
From a shooting investigator’s chair this one is not close. He shot into a residence, shot a woman, told people his plan, then fired at civilians, officers, the drone and the helicopter. Those two rounds kept him from taking anyone else’s life.
Units Are Surrounded
The new book from Ray Dietrich. Five shootings in five months in Riverside County. The full book is coming - read how it starts, free.
