Nevada authorities decline to press charges against stepfather of 11 year old boy killed in Henderson, Nevada road rage shooting while also releasing bodycam video in the aftermath.
Nevada authorities have released bodycam footage of a father’s reaction to to his 11 year old stepson being shot and killed in a road rage shooting in Henderson, Nevada earlier this month.
In bodycam footage released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the devastated dad, identified as Valente Ayala, could be seen just moments after his stepson, Brandon Dominguez-Chavarria, was fatally shot while they were driving on a highway to school in Henderson.
‘My kid is dead,’ Ayala screamed as he gestured toward his car. ‘My son!’
22 year old driver accepts full responsibility for shooting 11 year old boy dead
Officers could also be seen putting the suspect, Tyler Matthew Johns, in handcuffs as the 22 year old man accepted responsibility for his actions.
‘We were road-raging,’ the suspect said in the video. ‘It’s 100 percent my fault. I shot at him, dude. I didn’t even know he had a kid in the car.’
The video also shows the father lying on his back and then an officer grabbing his hand to comfort him.
According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, prosecutors had decided against charging the stepfather while saying they had considered the possibility, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Friday.
Authorities said on November 14, the stepfather and Tyler Johns had been jockeying for positions on the westbound 215 Beltway near Gibson Road, Henderson and arguing with each other before Johns shot into the backseat of Ayala’s vehicle, hitting and killing the 11 year old boy who was shot in the head.
Realizing his stepson had been shot, Ayala rammed Johns’s vehicle to prevent him from fleeing. Both men then exited their cars and confronted each other on the road until a passerby flagged down a police officer.
Stepfather of 11 year old boy killed in road rage shooting dodges his own charges
‘We thoroughly explored the possibility of charging the stepfather with a crime,’ said Wolfson, adding that prosecutors reviewed videos and weighed a charge of child abuse, neglect or endangerment.
But ‘in order to prove child abuse and neglect and endangerment, there has to be a degree of behavior and conduct and what he did that day, after reviewing all the evidence, doesn’t rise to that level,’ Wolfson said.
Added attorney Matthew Hoffman via News3LV, ‘So in this case, was there enough there for the police to say, okay, he was the aggressor, he was trying to drive this guy off the road, or he was making threats to the person? Apparently, it wasn’t there.’
According to the LVRJ, one witness called Ayala ‘the aggressor,’ citing police. After the shooting, Ayala and Johns continued to argue in the road according to cops.
Police Chief Reggie Rader condemned the road rage shooting as a tragic example of how quickly road-rage incidents can escalate. Authorities urged the public to practice patience on the road, noting ‘that a brief moment of frustration cost a child his life.’
Johns has been charged with open murder with a deadly weapon enhancement along with additional firearms-related charges. He is being held at the Henderson Detention Center.
