Father breaks silence 3 weeks after toddler shot

Nearly a month after a 3-year-old was fatally shot and his mother was arrested, the child’s father said he’s devastated that he’ll never get to see his son grow up.

“I wanted to see him go to school, be successful and be better than I am. Now I don’t get witness that,” Mike Jaffey, 30, said Wednesday in his first public interview since the Dec. 16 shooting.

John Jaffey was fatally shot while walking 6 feet in front of his mother, Jasmin Vargas, 25, who police have said pulled the trigger. She was arrested hours later and is being held in the Clark County Detention Center on charges of child abuse or neglect, child abuse or neglect with a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily or mental harm, and disregarding the safety of another person resulting in death or substantial bodily harm, according to jail records.

Vargas told police after the shooting that she bought the gun about a month before because “she is small in stature” and that her boyfriend had loaded it with six rounds. She fired two rounds into the desert the day before and told police she didn’t understand why there was a bullet in the chamber if she was removing the magazine while her finger was on the trigger, according to her arrest report.

Mike Jaffey was critical of Vargas, claiming that “to me she was an irresponsible person all around, not even just around my kid.”

He cited Vargas’ history with the Clark County Department of Family Services’ child protective services. That history includes losing custody of another son born in 2014. Several family members had confirmed to the Review-Journal that Vargas’ sister was granted guardianship of that baby.

The department said a report of neglect was received in December 2014 and the family was placed under formal supervision until 2017, when the case was closed and the child was placed in a permanent home with the sister.

CPS was called twice in 2017 to investigate the family again, but both reports of neglect were found unsubstantiated, according to the same CPS report.

Jaffey remembered his son as an energetic boy who liked to play video games with his father’s friends and would eat any food put in front of him.

“He was smart, so I would have loved to watch what he did in school, what he was going to become,” Jaffey said. “He wasn’t old enough to start realizing what he wanted to be.”

Days after the shooting Jaffey’s paternal aunt, Katrina Corbridge, said she hoped the tragedy reminds people that owning a firearm is a responsibility and to never point a gun at something they didn’t want to harm.

“Take a class,” Corbridge said. “There are plenty of classes in the Las Vegas area. Just get some kind of safety, explanation, teaching.”

In a hearing Tuesday, defense attorney David Fischer requested that Vargas’ bail be lowered to $5,000 from $80,000, but Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Amy Chelini denied the request. A preliminary hearing was rescheduled for Jan. 26.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.