LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — The suspect in a shooting that killed an 11-year-old boy admitted to firing his weapon and told police he “did not know there was a kid in the back” of the vehicle, according to police documents.
According to the arrest report, police dispatchers received a call on Nov. 14 just after 7:30, reporting a collision on the westbound 215 at Gibson Road, saying that traffic was blocked. A second call to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department dispatches said an LVMPD officer had arrived at the scene and that there was a boy in the back seat of a vehicle with a gunshot wound to his head.
Witnesses said the incident occurred when a black Chevrolet Traverse driven by Valente Ayala was blocked from merging into traffic by a blue Hyundai Elantra driven by Tyler Johns, documents said. Ayala passed Johns and merged several cars ahead.
The vehicle driven by Johns approached and pulled parallel to Ayala. Each rolled down their windows, and the two drivers exchanged words, according to police documents. Johns then pulled a gun and fired one round through Ayala’s window. That gunshot struck Brandon Dominguez-Chavarria, 11, of Henderson, Ayala’s stepson.
The report stated that Johns’s vehicle swerved to the exit lane for Stephanie Street. Ayala rammed Johns’s vehicle, “in an attempt to stop Tyler from fleeing the scene.” Witnesses separated the two men, who were “engaged in a heated verbal exchange.” Ayala was yelling that Johns had killed his son, documents said.
Witnesses opened the passenger side door and found Dominguez-Chavarria “slumped over” having been shot, according to police documents. An LVMPD officer arrived moments after the incident and said he also saw the child who had been shot, adding that he “appeared beyond help.”
Johns admitted to police that he had fired at the Traverse, saying, “I did not know there was a kid in the back.” According to the report, he then turned around and placed his hands behind his back without prompting from officers, “in what appeared to be a movement to allow them to place handcuffs on his wrists.”
Ayala told police he believed Johns had intended to shoot him, but had struck the 11-year-old due to the speed of the two vehicles, according to police documents. He also told police that he was not armed and did not own any firearms.
Johns faces charges of open murder, discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle, and firing a gun from a vehicle. He is being held at the Henderson Detention Center without bail.
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