Man killed by Las Vegas cops earlier in the week had a cellphone and not a gun in his hand: police

Las Vegas police are investigating the killing of a wanted man who was shot dead earlier this week by two officers who mistook his cellphone for a gun, authorities said on Saturday.

Keith Childress Jr., 23, died from multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, the Clark County Coroner's Office said.

Federal agents were tracking the suspect, sought for attempted murder and other violent felonies in Arizona, when he was shot in a residential neighborhood of Las Vegas at about 2 p.m. on Thursday, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement.

Two police officers, responding to a request for help from the U.S. Marshals Service, found the suspect outside a house. They repeatedly ordered him to drop what they thought was a firearm in his right hand and to stop moving toward them, police said.

"At one point the officers told the suspect not to advance on the officers. However, the suspect did not listen, concealing his right arm, which the officers believed was holding a firearm," Captain Matt McCarthy of Las Vegas police told reporters.

The officers fired, shooting the man several times and killing him.

"During the course of the investigation, we have learned that the object was a cellphone," McCarthy said.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Helen Popper)