Police bodycam footage captured the heartbreaking moment a Nevada stepfather screamed, “My kid is dead!” after discovering his 11-year-old stepson had been shot during a road-rage encounter — while the accused gunman quietly admitted to the killing and surrendered on the spot.
The video, released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, shows Valente Ayala collapsing in anguish on Interstate 215 as he told an officer that his stepson, Brandon Dominguez, was unresponsive in the backseat of their Chevy SUV. The deadly confrontation unfolded around 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 15 as Ayala was driving the boy to school.
“My kid is dead. My son!” Ayala cried, pointing toward the vehicle while overwhelmed with grief.
As Ayala pleaded for help, 22-year-old Tyler Matthew Johns — the alleged shooter — calmly walked up to the responding officer, placed his hands behind his back, and confessed. “I shot at him, bro,” Johns said, appearing remorseful. He admitted the heated exchange between the two drivers escalated into “road raging” and said the fatal shot was “100 percent my fault.”
“I didn’t know there was a f—ing kid in the back and I killed him,” he told police.
Bodycam footage also shows Ayala collapsing onto the freeway shoulder as officers discovered Brandon’s lifeless body inside the SUV. Police say the violence began when the two drivers weaved around each other in heavy traffic, rolled down their windows, and exchanged heated words. Johns allegedly pulled a handgun and fired into Ayala’s vehicle, striking Brandon.
Ayala then rammed Johns’ car, forcing both vehicles to a stop in the middle of the highway, where the men confronted each other again until a passing Las Vegas officer intervened and detained Johns. He has since been charged with murder and discharging a firearm into a vehicle.
Brandon was pronounced dead at the scene.
In a heartbreaking tribute on GoFundMe — which has raised more than $38,000 — the boy’s parents wrote, “There are no words big enough to describe the pain we are feeling. Brandon was the light of our family — our happy, loving boy with the biggest heart, the silliest personality, and a joy that filled every room he entered.”
Johns is scheduled to return to court on Dec. 4.
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