Las Vegas 'Road Rage' Shooting Arrest: Family Knew Suspect

Police were looking for the suspect who shot and killed a mother in Las Vegas.

ByABC News
February 19, 2015, 7:38 PM

— -- Las Vegas police identified the suspect who was arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged road rage incident that took the life of a woman, and the victim's husband told reporters the family knew the suspect and had tried to help him.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrested Erich Nowsch, 19, at a house only a block away from where the slain woman, Tammy Meyers, had lived with her family. Meyers' visibly upset husband, Robert Meyers, was standing nearby when the arrest was made after a two-hour standoff and was asked by police to back away from the area.

Police spokesman Christopher Tomaino said Nowsch was believed to be the only shooting suspect in the case but that police were still seeking another person involved.

Robert Meyers told reporters after the arrest that his family knew Nowsch and his late wife had had spent "countless" hours trying to help him.

"He knew where we lived," he said. "We knew how bad he was."

Tomaino said investigators were unaware that Meyers knew Nowsch.

PHOTO: Tammy Meyers, pictured in front of her car in an undated family photo
Tammy Meyers, pictured in front of her car in an undated family photo. The family is now offering to give Tammy Meyers' prized 1965 El Camino in exchange for information leading to the arrest of her killed.

Meyers said his wife and son went looking for Nowsch after the road rage incident because they knew him and where he lived.

Meyers said police have done an "awesome" job on the case.

Police revealed this week that Tammy Meyers and her armed son, Brandon, got in a car to look for the driver with whom she had a dispute last Thursday. She had been teaching her 15-year-old daughter how to drive in the parking lot of a nearby school.

PHOTO: Brandon Meyers is pictured at a vigil for his mother, Tammy Meyers, on Feb. 17, 2015 in Las Vegas.
Brandon Meyers is pictured at a vigil for his mother, Tammy Meyers, on Feb. 17, 2015 in Las Vegas.

After the incident on the road, Tammy Meyers drove home and asked her daughter to tell her 22-year-old son to come to the car. When the mother and son returned home, police said, the suspect's car pulled up. Gunfire erupted and Meyers was fatally wounded.

She died Saturday at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada.

PHOTO: The family of the late Tammy Meyers held a candlelight vigil in Las Vegas Feb. 17, 2015 after Meyers was gunned down in what police are calling a road rage incident.
The family of the late Tammy Meyers held a candlelight vigil in Las Vegas Feb. 17, 2015 after Meyers was gunned down in what police are calling a road rage incident.

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