Mother, son killed at K9 shooting recalled as good people who were well-loved

Felecia Wimberly-Hughes was a happy, generous woman, a mother of four children and a grandmother.

Branden Hughes, her oldest son, was known for being a joker.

Both were fatally shot at a neighbor’s house on Thursday.

Jocling Kefale, 29, spoke to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday, because she wants the public to know that her mother and brother were good people and well-loved.

“Everyone she knew she touched, not just her kids,” she said of her mom. “Everyone is really affected.”

The family is upset that the news media has paid so much attention to a police dog that was killed while Las Vegas police tried to take the suspect into custody, when her family is devastated from losing Hughes and Wimberly-Hughes on the same day.

Wimberly-Hughes, 46, was a nurse for 20 years and loved helping people, Kefale said. The Detroit native moved to Las Vegas in 1999.

She was a homebody who loved to read books and watch movies, especially crime dramas and supernatural thrillers.

“She loved vampires,” Kefale said.

Hughes, 31, loved to sing, draw and play the drums. It didn’t take much to make the father of four laugh, and he had a knack for making others laugh. He was also mechanically inclined and loved to fix things.

He moved to the valley from Detroit a little more than a month ago for a fresh start near his family. He hadn’t found a job yet.

“He was just trying to change his life,” Kefale said.

Kefale said now the family has to deal with grieving, funeral expenses, moving, and she still has to break the news to her children, who won’t be home until Thursday.

Hughes’ children are too young to really grasp what happened, but not Kefale’s kids, who are 7 and 9 years old.

“They’re much older, and they’ll understand,” she said. “They were very close to my mother.”

Hughes and Wimberly-Hughes went over to their neighbor’s house Thursday to check in because they heard a loud argument.

Police reports say James Craig Simpson, 31, was visiting his mother next door. He was acting erratically and the two were arguing throughout the house.

Hughes and Wimberly-Hughes were shot and killed in the garage. Simpson went out onto the street, still holding the handgun.

That’s where Kefale saw him.

She was taking a nap, but she woke up when she heard her mother and brother might have been hurt next door. She said she saw Simpson, who first told her that someone was holding his mother hostage.

Then he threatened to kill her, and she ran away.

“When I encountered him, I got the impression that he was crazy,” she said.

Simpson was then involved in a running gunbattle with Las Vegas police, in which a police dog was killed. Simpson was shot multiple times, but survived to face numerous charges, including two counts of murder. Police said Monday that the shooting left him paralyzed.

Kefale said her mother was a spiritual woman, and she was raised not to have hate in her heart. Even for the man who killed her mother and brother.

“I’m very angry, but I can’t hate,” she said. “That’s what she taught me.”

Funeral services for Hughes and Wimberly-Hughes will be held at 4 p.m. Friday at Palm Cheyenne Mortuary. Kefale said the public is welcome to attend.

The family is fundraising to help with expenses. Donations can be arranged online at www.paypal.me/feleciahugheswimberl or www.gofundme.com/mfxna22k.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find @WesJuhl on Twitter.