Feb. 18--The case of a Las Vegas woman who was shot to death last week in front of her home after a road-rage incident is a lot more complicated than first believed, police said Tuesday.
Tammy Meyers, 44, was giving her 15-year-old daughter a driving lesson Thursday night when she was involved in a confrontation with another driver. Police initially said Meyers and her daughter had gone home after the incident and were calling for help when a car pulled up and someone inside opened fire.
Police now say Meyers, after returning home, went searching for the other driver. She was joined by her 22-year-old son, who had a gun, police said in a news conference Tuesday. The pair drove around looking for a gray or silver sedan. Meyers and her son found the vehicle, police said, and followed it for a while before Meyers decided to go home.
Once home, a silver or gray sedan drove into their cul-de-sac, police said, and someone began shooting at them. Meyers' son returned fire, and the car sped off. Meyers was hit. She died two days later after being taken off life support, her family said.
"I would never say that anybody went looking for trouble, but unfortunately I can't ask Tammy what was in her mind at the time of her actions," said Lt. Ray Steiber of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. "At this point in time, Tammy is a victim.... It's our obligation as a community and as a law enforcement organization to ensure that everyone is safe, regardless of what our personal opinions are on certain people's actions."
Investigators have not identified a suspect in the case.
Meyers, a nurse, was described as "the most giving person one could ever know" on a page for a memorial fund set up on the crowd-sourced fundraising site GoFundMe.
On Thursday night, she had finished giving her daughter a driving lesson in a school parking lot and was driving home when a silver or gray sedan sped up behind her, police said. The car then veered to the side of Meyers' car, and as it did so, her daughter reached over and honked the horn.
"She was getting a driving lesson," Steiber said. "She figured that this person was speeding and they needed to be corrected. Right or wrong, she beeped the horn."
The car pulled in front of Meyers and stopped abruptly, police said. The driver, described as a white man in his 20s, about 6 feet tall with a medium build, got out of the car and approached Meyers and her daughter, who were still in their car.
"There were some words" spoken by the suspect that scared Meyers and her daughter, and they sped around the driver and went home, Steiber said.
When they arrived, Meyers told her daughter to wake her son and tell him to get in the car, police said.
The two went out, and between five or 10 minutes later, they pulled back in. Then shots were fired.
Police think the suspect in the car fired first, and Meyers' son returned fire. They did not say how many rounds were fired.
Authorities called the shooting an "isolated incident involving road rage that ended in a tragic murder." Homicide investigators are reviewing evidence, including additional video evidence that has not been released, Steiber said.
For more breaking news, follow me @cmaiduc
