LAS VEGAS (AP) - The suspect in what has been described as a road-rage slaying boasted about the shooting and told friends he emptied several clips from his semi-automatic handgun in the gunbattle that killed a Las Vegas mother of four, a police report released Friday said.
The report sheds new light on the violent encounter between 19-year-old suspect Erich Milton Nowsch Jr. and victim Tammy Meyers and her 22-year-old son Brandon Meyers last week. Police said Nowsch fired several shots at them on two occasions that night - once a few blocks away from their house and again in the cul-de-sac outside the home.
Police said he told friends after the shooting: "Got those kids. They were after me, and I got them."
The police report does not clarify a nagging question about the investigation: what role road rage played in the altercation.
Family members said Tammy Meyers and her teenage daughter exchanged words with another driver Feb 12. The mother was apparently giving her daughter a driving lesson in the family's green Buick Park Avenue.
Fearful of her life, she then dropped the daughter off at home and picked up her son, who brought his 9mm handgun.
The police report said Nowsch told friends the altercation began after he saw someone in a green car in a nearby school parking lot waving a gun out the window.
Nowsch also told friends he fired 22 shots from his .45-caliber gun outside the Meyers home, according to the report.
The disclosure that Tammy Meyers had taken a motherly interest in Nowsch following the suicide of his father five years ago provided another twist to a case that has posed more questions than answers.
With a suspect gunman in jail, police focused Friday on finding an accomplice.
District Attorney Steve Wolfson said despite "a lot of twists and turns in the case," he is confident police have the right man. He said he expects at least one more arrest in the coming days.
Police remained tight-lipped about their efforts, a day after homicide Capt. Chris Tomaino told reporters pieces of the puzzle would fit together once the case is turned over to prosecutors.
Tomaino said a sketch circulated early in the investigation was no longer relevant.
Neighbors noticed when the 5-foot-3 Nowsch was taken into custody Thursday that he looked nothing like the 6-foot blond man police had described earlier.
Nowsch was arrested after SWAT teams surrounded his house a block from the Meyers home, in a middle-class neighborhood of modest stucco homes with tile roofs about 5 miles west of downtown Las Vegas.