An 11-year-old boy was shot and killed on his way to school on Friday morning during what the police described as a roadside dispute between two drivers on a congested Nevada highway.
The shooting happened around 7:30 a.m. in the westbound lanes of 215 Southern Beltway in Henderson, Nev., just outside of Las Vegas, where two drivers were attempting to pass each other in heavy traffic, the police said during a news conference.
One of the drivers tried to pass the other along the shoulder of the highway, leading to a confrontation in which both men rolled down their windows to argue.
One of the drivers, Tyler Matthew Johns, 22, pulled out a handgun and fired a single shot into the other car. The bullet struck the child in the back seat, according to Reggie Rader, chief of the Henderson Police Department.
The boy’s stepfather rammed Mr. Johns’s vehicle immediately after the shooting, the police said. The police did not publicly identify the stepfather or the child.
Both men got out of their cars and continued to argue as bystanders flagged down a nearby police officer. Mr. Johns was taken into custody at the scene while paramedics attended to the child.
The boy was taken to a hospital, where he died from his injuries, the police said. The authorities did not say where the boy was shot.
Homicide detectives arrived at the scene and charged Mr. Johns with open murder, firing a gun from a car and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. As of Saturday afternoon, he was being held at the Henderson Detention Center without bond, according to jail records.
It was not immediately clear if Mr. Johns had a lawyer.
In a statement posted on Friday, the Henderson Police Department urged drivers to “slow down, stay patient, and show restraint behind the wheel.”
“A child’s life was lost today — a life cut short by a senseless act on our roadways,” the statement said.
Mark Walker is an investigative reporter for The Times focused on transportation. He is based in Washington.
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