A Las Vegas woman who was killed in an apparent road rage shooting last week drove around with her armed son looking for the suspect who would later shoot her in front of her home, police said Tuesday.
Tammy Meyers, 44, was shot by someone in a gray or silver four-door sedan outside her home around 11:22 p.m. Thursday, and died two days later. The suspect or suspects remain unidentified, police said.
Police said Meyers and her armed 22-year-old son followed a car she believed had been involved in a road rage incident earlier that night, that they stopped following the vehicle and returned home, and when they got there a car matching the description of the one they'd followed pulled up and someone inside it began shooting. Meyers' son returned fire, police said.
"I did what I had to do to protect my family. Everyone can think what they have to think; I did it for a reason. And I’d do it for anyone I love," Meyers' son, Brandon, said at a vigil Tuesday.
"My mother was a very strong woman … She was a kind woman," he said. "She didn’t deserve this."
Las Vegas police Lt. Ray Steiber said Tammy Meyers was behind the wheel and was returning home from teaching her 15-year-old daughter how to drive when a car sped up behind them, and that her daughter reached over and honked the horn.
"She was getting a driving lesson. So she figured that this person was speeding and they needed to be corrected," Steiber said. The driver got out and confronted them before Meyers sped off.
After the incident Meyers "is scared, but she’s upset," Steiber said. She and her son then went out looking for the driver and they found the car she believed was involved in the earlier incident — which police referred to as a "suspect vehicle" — and followed it before heading for home.
As they got out of their car, a gray or silver four-door sedan showed up at the cul-de-sac and "there was a volley of rounds fired from that vehicle," Steiber said. Meyers' son shot back, and after the gunfire was over he discovered Meyers, who was behind him, had been shot. Police believe she was struck by a gunman in the other car.
Meyers’ husband, Robert Meyers, told mourners at the vigil that his late wife was a beautiful woman who loved her kids, but also that "she hated bullies."
Steiber said the gun Meyers’ son was armed with is properly registered.
"I would never say that anybody went looking for trouble and unfortunately I can’t ask Tammy what was in her mind at the time of her actions," Steiber said. "What I can say is this: At this point in time Tammy is a victim. This family right now is in mourning. They are very distraught over what has occurred.”
"Regardless of what our personal opinions are on certain people’s actions, they weren’t criminal," he said.
Police have described the suspect as a white male about 25 years old, about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds with "dirty blonde hair worn in a spiked style" and hazel or blue eyes.