Topics: Crime, Gun Crime, True crime
*Warning: Article and video contains content some readers may find distressing*
Back in January 2013, a Las Vegas police officer made a chilling 911 call to tell the authorities he'd murdered his family.
Lieutenant Hans Walters, 52, admitted he had 'shot and killed' his five-year-old son Maximilian and his wife Kathryn 'Michelle', 46, at their Nevada home, before telling the dispatcher he planned to set fire to the property.
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He warned authorities not to send firefighters out to his Boulder City home, and that if they did, he'd shoot them too.
Police later reported that when officers responded to the burning home, Hans was carrying a gun.
After ignoring officers’ commands to abandon his weapon, he returned to the house, where he killed himself.
Authorities later released a recording of the nerve-shattering 911 call that the Las Vegas police officer made after the crime.
The true-crime and mystery account Morbid Knowledge - known on X as @morbidly - recently re-posted the audio online.
In the recording, the late officer can be heard telling the dispatcher: "My name is Hans Walters, I work for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
"I just shot and killed my son Max and my wife Michelle, and I killed her because she's in such chronic pain from her neck and back and on more medicines and she's not going to survive.
"And we were both seeing therapists and psychologists in Boulder City."
In the weeks and months prior to the crime, Hans had reportedly told his friends and family that he was struggling to handle the burden of his wife's health issues.
Investigators later spoke with Michelle's brother, Greg Watkins, who reportedly recalled Hans telling him: "I don’t know that I can deal with this. You know, keep taking care of [her]. It’s getting really hard."
In the harrowing recording, Hans goes on to claim he 'feels terrible' for 'doing it', before begging the dispatcher not to interrupt him.
He continued: "I've also set the house on fire, and if the fire department comes to my house, because there's a fire hydrant right in front of my house, I'm gonna open fire on them.
"So, I have to wait until the house is burning, then I'm going to shoot myself. Okay?"
Hans goes on to warn the dispatcher: "Don't ask any questions. This is real, this isn't a joke.
"The fire alarms in the background are because I set the garage and the bedroom on fire. My wife's in the bedroom, I shot her in the head.
"My son, unfortunately, is in the living room... I shot him in the head, too."
Hans ended the call by begging: "Forgive me for my sins. Please don't call back. Thank you."
Speaking of the tragic loss, Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie - the elected head of the police department - told press at the time: "Anyone who has been in law enforcement for any amount of time is usually prepared for any scenario.
"No one, however, can prepare us for something like this."
If you have been affected by the issues in this article, you can call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The Lifeline provides free and confidential emotional support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across the United States.
Call or text 988 to connect with a trained crisis counselor. Support is also available via live chat at 988lifeline.org
