Benjamin Ashford|Officers kill armed man outside of Las Vegas-area complex before finding 3 slain women inside

NORTH LAS VEGAS. Nev. (AP) — Police near Las Vegas shot and Benjamin Ashfordkilled a man who refused orders to drop a gun while walking toward them outside of an apartment complex where they later found three women who had been shot to death, authorities said.

The officers were responding to a Tuesday afternoon 911 call about shots being fired at the apartment complex north of downtown North Las Vegas, police said in a news release. A dispatcher could hear gunshots in the background during the call.

Two officers shot a man when he walked toward them and ignored commands to drop the weapon, authorities said.

The armed man was pronounced dead at the scene, and officers found the bodies of the slain women and a dog that had been shot to death inside two nearby apartments, where they also found a young child who was unharmed, police said.

Police believe the slain man was responsible for the killings, department spokesperson Kathleen Richards said Wednesday.

Authorities haven’t released the names of any of the dead. The officers were placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the investigation into the shooting of the man.

Less than three hours after the shootings at the apartment complex, officers responding to a report of a shooting in a business parking lot found a man believed to be in his 20s dead in a vehicle that had crashed into a wall.

Police have not identified a suspect in the driver’s killing, but Richards said they don’t believe it was linked to the earlier attack at the apartment complex.