Family, friends honor woman slain in road-rage shooting

By Pashtana Usufzy

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015 | 10:10 p.m.

A Las Vegas woman who was fatally shot after what police say was a road rage dispute was memorialized Tuesday night by family and friends near the school parking lot where she was teaching her teenage daughter how to drive.

Dozens of people huddled on the grass near a parking lot about 7 p.m. at Walter Johnson Junior High School, 7701 Ducharme Ave., near Alta and Buffalo drives, holding candles and shedding tears in honor of 44-year-old Tammy Meyers.

Meyers, a mother of four and grandmother, died on Valentine's Day when she was taken off life support at University Medical Center.

She was driving her 15-year-old daughter home slowly from a driving lesson in the parking lot when, her daughter told police, a man behind them sped up and drove alongside their vehicle.

The daughter said she reached over and honked the horn, and the man stopped in front of the vehicle before getting out, approaching Meyers with angry words, police said.

The daughter did not have a driver's permit.

Meyers then went home and sent her daughter inside before she and her armed, adult son, Brandon Meyers, went looking for the vehicle, police said.

They apparently found the vehicle and followed it before heading home, where the vehicle then approached and someone within opened fire, police said.

Brandon Meyers fired back, but Tammy Meyers was struck in the head during the exchange, police said.

Dozens joined her husband, Robert Meyers, and children Tuesday night, as they told stories about a woman they described as a mother figure to kids in their community and a stubborn defender of her family.

"She hated bullies," Robert Meyers said of his wife of 25 years. "She hated them."

Friend Michael Maldonado pointed to the turnout in describing Tammy Meyers as beloved.

"This is a testament to a good person in a community that needs good people," he said.

He held a wanted poster with an illustration of a man police say is the primary suspect in the shooting.

He is described as a white man in his mid-20s, about 6-feet-tall and 180 pounds with dirty blond, spiked hair.

The vehicle is believed to be a four-door gray or silver sedan, possibly with bullet holes and damage to the front driver's side, police said.

Tammy Meyers' daughter, Kristal, also spoke at the event, saying her mother was simply teaching her how to drive one moment and was gone the next.

"She was protecting me. That's all she was doing. She was protecting me," she said.

She smiled as she described her mother, who always insisted on feeding everyone around her and who sang with her daughter as she grew older.

"I know she's looking over me, and she's going to be singing," she said.

Initial details from police indicated the vehicle followed Meyers home immediately after the dispute, but new details indicate that wasn't the case.

Robert Meyers declined to comment on the specifics of the case.

He told reporters that his wife was defending her family and said that sometimes, people don't always react in the best way in emergency situations.

"When people are panicked, things happen," he said.

He told the crowd that gathered in his wife's honor that he believes the person or people responsible will be found.

"Oh, they'll be caught," he assured his daughter. "They'll be caught."

A website set up to cover the victim's hospital and funeral costs has brought in more than $5,900.

Robert Meyers said he will continue to mourn his wife but that he will no longer speak publicly on the case until a suspect or multiple suspects are caught.

"To Tammy," he said, raising his lit candles in the air as the family prepared to leave.

"To Mommy," his daughter replied.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.