LATEST: New details have been released about the Henderson man accused of shooting and killing his wife.
Just the day before, 64-year-old Dennis Kopp's best friend told 13 Action News the incident was a mercy killing. Kopp was in court Monday.
Dennis Kopp appears in court after being accused of killing his wife, and calling 911 to confess pic.twitter.com/IW8MaEvTub
— Marissa Kynaston (@marissaktnv) August 1, 2016
According to court documents, Kopp told police his wife, 62-year-old Paulette King, wanted to die. Kopp also told police his wife suffered from debilitating illnesses, including fibromyalgia, spinal stenosis and arthritis.
Kopp told police on the morning of the shooting, his wife told him she was in pain and had taken a handful of pills. Kopp said she told him she never wanted to wake up. He told police after she took the pills, he shot her in the head.
The court documents also say Kopp called 911 himself, after contemplating suicide, confessed and turned himself in.
UPDATE: Henderson police say 64-year-old Dennis Kopp called 911 last Sunday to say he shot and killed his own wife, 61-year-old Paulette King. Now, the couples' best friend is speaking only to 13 Action News to say this was a mercy killing.
Ron Moidel says King told him 20 times in the last month, she wanted to die.
"If she told me 10, 15, 20 times this past month that she wanted to die, how many times do you think she told him (her husband)?" asked Moidel.
Moidel says he's been best friends with King for nearly a decade. He's been best friends with her husband, Dennis Kopp, for the last seven years since the two got married.
"I had become her best friend," said Moidel. "She told me that Dennis was the best thing that ever happened to her when it came to men."
Moidel says he knows a lot that went on behind the scenes with the couple.
"They were literally thrown together by illness."
Moidel says King was sick with a whole list of illnesses, including kidney disease, neuropathy, and fibromyalgia.
"(It was) so hard for her to even get out of bed a lot of the times," said Moidel.
Moidel says all she wanted was to die. He says she even threatened suicide over and over again.
"The one thing I was proud about, is anytime she said this, I talked her down!"
But instead, there was a different tragic ending. Henderson police say Kopp called last Sunday to say he shot and killed his own wife.
"He loved her so much," Moidel said. "You don't shoot somebody you love, unless, and this is the big key, unless you are trying to help them. Unless you are trying to take them out of their misery."
Moidel says he and the couple's children believe this was a mercy killing.
"It's sad. It's sad because this is a Romeo and Juliet type of marriage. He loved her to the ends of the earth. She loved him to the ends of the earth."
ORIGINAL STORY
HENDERSON (KTNV) -- A 64-year-old Henderson man shot his wife in their home Sunday afternoon and then called 911 confessing to the crime and waited for arriving officers.
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Dennis Kopp was taken into custody without incident about 4:45 p.m. Sunday outside his house in the 1700 block of Sequoia Drive, between Arroyo Grande Boulevard and Valle Verde Drive near Warm Springs Road. He was booked into the Henderson Detention Center on murder charges. The investigation into the shooting is continuing.
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61-year-old Paulette King was found inside the home with a gunshot wound. She was taken to Sunrise Hospital for treatment but died of her wounds about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
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Kopp called 911 saying he had just shot his wife inside their home. He remained on the phone with dispatchers until officers arrived at the house. King was found inside a spare bedroom with a gunshot wound.
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The handgun believed to be used in the shooting was found inside the home.
