Hallucinating man shot wife on phone to police

A woman was shot dead by her husband 15 minutes into a frantic phone call to 911, during which she told police he was hallucinating and asking her to shoot him.

Authorities are investigating whether Denver police responded quickly enough to the call.

A homicide detective who listened to the 911 call said he heard her scream and then gunfire, according to court documents.

Officers arrived just after the shooting and found Kristine Kirk, aged 44, of Denver, dead of a gunshot wound to the head.

A judge ordered her husband, Richard Kirk, 47, held without bail after his first court appearance. Kirk showed no emotion. He faces first-degree murder charges.

Police officials said their internal investigation will focus on the time it took for officers to respond to the home and whether dispatchers properly prioritised the woman’s call, which is characterised in court papers work as a “domestic disturbance”.

Kristine Kirk told dispatchers her husband was “talking about the end of the world, and he wanted her to shoot him”, the court documents say. She said he was hallucinating and scaring the couple’s three young boys.

She said there was a gun in the house, but it was in a safe.

Detectives are investigating whether Richard Kirk used marijuana before the shooting “based on evidence we found at the scene”.