‘My kid is dead!’: Video shows harrowing moments after road rage shooting
Las Vegas police on Friday released body camera footage capturing the aftermath of a deadly road rage shooting in Henderson that claimed the life of an 11-year-old.
The Metropolitan Police Department shared the recordings on its Public Records Unit YouTube channel, posting five separate videos totaling roughly an hour of footage.
In the first body camera video, the suspect in the shooting, 22-year-old Tyler Johns, who is wearing a mechanic-style button-up shirt and a trucker hat, surrenders to a Metro officer who was the first to respond to the scene because he was already in the area.
Meanwhile, Valente Ayala pleaded with the officer, crying out that Johns had shot his son, Brandon Dominguez-Chavarria.
“My kid is dead!” Ayala wailed as the officer placed Johns under arrest. During the video, the officer clarified that Dominguez-Chavarria was Ayala’s stepson.
The footage also showed Johns, stoic, saying that he and Ayala were “road raging” on the westbound 215 Beltway near Gibson Road. Johns admitted to firing into Ayala’s SUV, claiming he didn’t realize a child was inside.
In the video, Ayala collapsed to the ground and sobbed while making a phone call. The Metro officer knelt beside him, holding his hand as he screamed.
The same officer then went to check on Johns, who was handcuffed in the backseat of his patrol vehicle. The officer wrote down John’s personal information and his account of the shooting.
Johns then asked the officer: “Is there a chance that the kid will be okay?”
“There’s always a chance,” the officer replied, adding, “If you’re a praying man, I would be praying right now.”
Authorities said the boy, who was shot in the head, died at the hospital.
Johns, who now faces murder and gun charges, also asked in the video if he could call his boss and tell him he would not make it to work.
Later, while in the custody of the Henderson Police Department — which has jurisdiction over the shooting — Johns made another request: a hair tie to pull his hair back into a ponytail. Officers in the video declined the request.
Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.
