Husband of woman killed in Vegas says family knew suspect

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By KEN RITTER

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The husband of a Las Vegas mother who died in a road-rage shootout says the family knew a suspect arrested by police and had tried to mentor him.

Robert Meyers spoke to reporters Thursday outside the family home after police arrested the suspect about a block away.

He said his late wife gave the suspect money and tried to teach him how to be a man.

Meyers did not provide any details of the encounter the night his wife was shot last week.


In this Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015, photo, Robert Meyers, left, and others bow their heads during a prayer at a candlelight vigil for his wife, Tammy, who was taken off life support on Saturday after a shooting in Las Vegas. What police first described as a road rage-inspired shooting of an innocent mother of four has morphed into a more complex scenario, prompting a backlash Wednesday against the Las Vegas family and the way the case is being handled. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Sun, L.E. Baskow) LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL OUT


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150219/us--road-rage-shooting-bea3c89eca.html

[Bonhomme Richard]

1. Do they know who shot first? n/t

[kelliekat44]

2. This is a sad case but i just have to ask this. What happened to "stand your ground?"

Did not this now deceased woman go after the accused? Does "stand your ground" only apply when blacks are involved?

[840high]

3. This woman should have

stayed home and not go looking for this person.

[Judi Lynn]

4. This is unexpected news! Great find. n/t

[Coventina]

5. I now officially call "BS" on the claim it was "road rage".

The plot thickens.....

She "tried to teach him how to be a man"?!?!?!

[jberryhill]

6. ...and gave him money....

Hmmm.....

[Coventina]

8. Yeah....there's some real weird sh*t behind this story....

And the fact that the family tried to play it off like it was a simple "road rage" incident sends all kinds of warning bells off in my head.

I hope the police are actually doing their jobs on this one....

[Ken Burch]

9. What do you take that to mean? n/t.

[jberryhill]

10. I don't know what to make of it

The story is pretty cryptic. Four or five sentences with facts not connected to anything in particular.

I haven't been following this one, but was this initially reported to the police as some sort of stranger incident?

[Coventina]

11. I find it really suspicious that the family tried to pass it off as a random incident of road rage.

When it turns out that the woman and her killer had some sort of relationship that apparently the husband was not party to.
Otherwise, why not say that they both had tried to mentor him?

[Ken Burch]

13. Her husband is in a state of deep grief, rage, and shock

(all of that was apparent from his appearance at the standoff scene today). He probably wasn't focusing on precise word usage.

Also, it is possible for a woman to try to offer help and guidance to a man without having "something going on between them."

[Coventina]

20. Agreed, but obviously SOMETHING was going on between them. Maybe not sexual -

but for guns to become involved ON BOTH SIDES, there was some bad mojo on both sides.

They went looking for him, WITH A GUN! When they knew who he was! Why not just drive to the nearest police station if they felt that threatened?

[Ken Burch]

34. Her son brought the gun on his own. Him coming along wasn't her idea.

Why is it so hard to believe that the victim's intent was simply to make sure that any possible confrontation didn't endanger her family(especially her daughter, whose only crime was honking the damn horn at the guy, which seems to have threatened his excessively fragile sense of "manliness&quot .

This thread has had some of the most horribly sexist and victim-blaming comments I've ever seen on DU.

Why are so many people on this board so fixated with trying to excuse the gunning-down of an innocent woman?

[LisaL]

36. Son claims he wanted to call police, but mother insisted he came with her, or she was going to go by

herself.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-las-vegas-road-rage-arrest-20150220-story.html

[Coventina]

39. How do you know she's innocent? Why has the family been lying?

And again, WHY DIDN'T THEY GO TO THE POLICE INSTEAD OF CONFRONTING THE SUSPECT WITH A GUN?

Those are not sexist questions to ask.

And, I'm VERY hesitant to call someone a "victim" if they chose to get involved in an armed confrontation.

[Ken Burch]

7. Sounds like she was trying to help the guy.

Even if it wasn't road rage, it was still a totally unprovoked and unjustified attack on her.

The fault may ultimately lie with the State of Nevada or City of Las Vegas mental health systems for not dealing with the guy earlier.

In the pictures they showed on CNN earlier, the suspect looked like he could have been a vet who'd served inn Iraq or Afghanistan, so this may have something to do with PTSD.

[LisaL]

15. He is 19 years old. Looks about 15. He didn't serve anywhere.

[Ken Burch]

16. Thanks for clarifying his age. n/t.

[Chemisse]

19. WAS it really an unjustified act on her?

Will we find out next that the son shot first?

Also, if he was just a young kid (18 or 19?) he could not have been a vet with PTSD, or mentally ill at all, for that matter.

[Coventina]

21. Agreed, there are far too many who seem to swallow everything this family says, when it's obvious

that they've been obfuscating.

[Skittles]

24. they needed to pump up the gofundme project before coming clean

[Ken Burch]

25. Why couldn't he have been mentally ill?

A lot of teenagers have mental health issues.

[Chemisse]

28. Of course, you're right.

He certainly could have been mentally ill.

Although if he had one or more others with him during the incident, it would seem less likely.

[Skittles]

23. yes, she got her son and his gun to go after him to help him

that sounds logical

[Ken Burch]

32. According to her husband, the son just jumped into the car on his own.

It really disturbs me that so many people here are already assuming that the victim brought this on herself.

Remember, this was all a series of events that happened very quickly. It's not as if she was plotting her response to the guy for hours. Why shouldn't we believe her husband that the woman's intent was simply to keep any confrontation from happening at her house and endangering her family(especially her daughter, the one who seemed to be at the greatest danger from the hotheaded teens who couldn't handle it that a girl would dare to honk at them).

It's kind of insane to suggest that she WANTED her son to grab his gun and come along. There's nothing in anything the woman did prior to that that supports the idea that she'd drive off into the night looking to end these guys.

[LisaL]

35. Son says otherwise.

"But police now say that Meyers, after returning home, appears to have gone out searching for the other driver. She was joined by her 22-year-old son, Brandon, who armed himself with a 9-millimeter Beretta, authorities say. According to court documents, “Brandon said he told his mother to come in the house and call the police, but she told him no, come with me or I will go by myself.”"

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-las-vegas-road-rage-arrest-20150220-story.html

[Ken Burch]

37. That doesn't mean she necessarily wanted him to come armed, though.

And remember, we only have the son's word that she asked him to come along at all-and that it's in the son's own interest at this point to deflect attention away from the fact that he had that gun.

And we have no way of knowing for sure if the three guys actually even knew he had that weapon.

Why is there so much eagerness to blame this woman for her own killing? Or to try to make this into a torrid-affair-gone-bad narrative?

If it had been the husband giving the kid money and trying to "make him a man", would anyone be assuming the husband was having an affair with the kid? I seriously doubt it.

[LisaL]

38. Her husband wasn't there at all.

So what makes you think his statements about son just jumping into the car are anywhere near credible?
And why was she giving money to the suspect?
You aren't a little bit curious?

[Vinca]

41. The woman did bring it on herself.

She could have gone home and stayed there, opting to either forget the incident of make a police report. She chose Plan B: get a gun on board.

[Skittles]

42. how would this have played out with no guns?

and no gun humpers?

[Ken Burch]

43. Much better for all concerned, obviously.

But remember, the other guys had guns too, and they're the ones who used them.

It's not as if only her son was armed, y'know.

[Skittles]

44. gun humper logic

bad for everyone

[notadmblnd]

12. Erich Milton Nowsch Jr., 19,

will face murder and two other felony charges in the fatal shooting of Tammy Meyers, according to court documents. He also will face one count of attempted murder and one count of the unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle.

Meyers' husband said Thursday the suspect knew where to find the family.

"We know this boy. I couldn't tell you this before," Robert Meyers told reporters. "He knew where I lived. We knew how bad he was, but we didn't know it was this bad. That he'd gotten to this point, and his friends."

Detectives still have at least one more suspect they are seeking in connection with the case, homicide Capt. Chris Tomaino told reporters on Thursday. more... http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/twists-turns-in-fatal-las-vegas-road-rage/31359192

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

14. As I suspected....

There was more to this....

[herding cats]

17. Then they didn't go looking for him to get an ID.

From what they're saying they knew who he was, where he lived, etc. They made the conscious choice to not call 911 and report an incident against a person whose ID they knew well; instead they went looking for him with a loaded gun for whatever their reasoning. The situation devolved and the suspect in the murder came looking for them with a loaded gun as well. It was stupid, it was unnecessarily confrontational, and it cost this woman her life.

My best guess is this is an ongoing grudge, or personality conflict situation which went way, way too far.

[Nay]

30. Yeah. If they went looking for him with a loaded gun, why can't HE claim the

"stand your ground" position?

This whole confrontation stinks, and lots more will be coming out, I suspect.

[freshwest]

18. Even more at this link. There is something really wrong with the situation:

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2015/02/19/road-rage-suspect-knew-victim-las-vegas-tammy-meyers

The husband should be taken to account for withholding evidence. He spread the story far and wide with his texts on the 'bad guys,' while it was happening. (?)

Then there is the remark by authorities that the fatal bullet wasn't from her son, no doubt a 'good guy with a gun' not the 'bad guy.'

But there were a lot of shots fired. Sounds like a shoot out by a group of armed hot heads. Not road rage.

[Skittles]

22. well of course

who didn't see that coming

[olddots]

26. Meth ?

definately some hinky sleaze going on .

conjecture on my part .

[joshcryer]

27. This explains why they immediately left.

The mom knew who it was and wanted to go confront him. It doesn't make what the suspect did right but it just shows an increasing escalation from there.

[HappyMe]

29. There is a bunch of

extremely fishy stuff going on here.

[hugo_from_TN]

31. Drugs, sex, or both.

Drug deal gone bad or a sexually relationship that ended badly.

[Ken Burch]

33. Victim-blaming at its worst.

Some people here seem way too eager to justify the murder of a woman.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

40. The murder of a woman ...

... who may have gone home to pick up her son with a gun, to hunt for another young man with a gun, who fired his weapon possibly in self-defense or standing-his-ground, or he may have fired first, who knows.

I can't tell who is the victim here, much less who to blame.

[Skittles]

45. gun humpers think it's just an unfortunate incident

that just happened to involve weapons?