Post by Joanna on Feb 21, 2015 1:47:44 GMT -5
UPDATE: Road Rage Shooting in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS – The 19-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a Las Vegas mother in what has been called a road rage attack bragged to friends after the killing, saying he "got those kids, they were after me, and I got them," according to a police warrant released Friday. Suspect Erich Nowsch also allegedly told two of his friends he fired a semiautomatic handgun 22 times in the February 12 incident that left 44-year-old Tammy Meyers shot in the head. She died two days later. Nowsch said he fired at two locations that night – once at a car that he thought had someone inside pointing a weapon and again at someone running from that car after it pulled into a cul-de-sac, according to the warrant. Nowsch told a friend he was sure he hit someone at the cul-de-sac, the warrant says.
Nowsch was arrested Thursday afternoon after a brief standoff with police at his home, just a block and a half from the Meyers residence. He is expected to be arraigned Monday on several charges, including murder with a deadly weapon. Police are looking for an accomplice, but said they believe Nowsch was the only shooter.
Meyers' husband revealed Thursday that his wife knew Nowsch and spent "countless hours" helping him, giving him food, money and advising him to "pull his pants up and be a man." The teenager was known by the nickname "Baby G."
The police account provides the most details yet into a complicated and conflicting case that initially appeared to be a random road rage incident that rattled residents of Las Vegas. The events of that night began as Meyers and her 15-year-old daughter were returning home from a driving lesson – that's when a silver car pulled up beside them and the daughter reached over and honked the horn, police said. Suddenly, the car cut in front of them and then "spun sideways" to block their path. The driver, described as 6-feet-tall, exited his car and told her, "I'm gonna' come back for you and your daughter," according to the warrant.
Meyers was able to speed around the car and they returned home, where the daughter was told to wake up Brandon, her 22-year-old brother. Brandon Meyers grabbed his 9mm Beretta and went outside and told his mom to come inside and call the police – but she refused and told him to come with her, or she'd go by herself. Brandon and his mother went looking for the car and eventually found a car she thought was involved in the earlier incident, which led to a chase. According to Brandon Meyers, the cars stopped on a nearby street and the front seat passenger of the silver car began shooting at their vehicle.
The mother and son sped away and returned to their house, which sits on a cul-de-sac, the warrant says. Brandon Meyers said that's when the silver car appeared and the front seat passenger again shot at them. Brandon said he shot back, firing three times. The other car backed out of the cul-de-sac, leaving Tammy Meyers lying on the ground bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head.
Nowsch told his friends the incident was sparked after he was sitting in a park near the school parking lot and saw the green car, which he thought was following him. That's when he called another friend in a silver Audi sedan to pick him up. According to the friends, Nowsch said there was an exchange between the two cars and the green car followed them. Nowsch told the friends he thought he saw a gun being waved from the window of that car, so he "put a clip in his gun and started shooting at the green car," according to the warrant.
When he met with friends early the next morning following the incident, he appeared happy and coherent, they said. Nowsch said he opened fire on someone running from the car they'd followed and he was sure he hit someone, according to the warrant.
Police still have not identified the driver of the silver Audi.
Source: Erik Ortiz, NBC News, February 20, 2015.