Suspect who fatally shot 11-year-old during road rage incident ‘did not know there was a kid’ in the back seat: Court documents

(HENDERSON, Nev.) — The suspect who allegedly shot and killed an 11-year-old boy during a road rage incident in Nevada said he “did not know there was a kid” in the back seat of the vehicle when he opened fire, according to a declaration of arrest obtained by ABC News.

Tyler Matthew Johns, 22, was arrested on Friday and booked for open murder — which is defined as first-degree murder and other included offenses — and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, according to the Henderson Police Department.

In a court appearance Tuesday, the judge ruled Johns will be held without bail on the first-degree murder charge.

“The court, quite candidly, could not underscore the danger of this enough, because this was a stranger, and it was amongst other citizens of Henderson. The idea of this conduct standing on its own is unbelievably dangerous,” Judge Barbara Schifalacqua said during the hearing on Tuesday.

The incident occurred at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Friday, when two vehicles in traffic began “jockeying for positions trying to pass each other on the congested freeway,” police said during a press conference on Friday.

One of the vehicles tried to pass on the shoulder of the freeway, which is when both drivers rolled down their windows and began arguing, police said.

Johns, who was in a four-door sedan, allegedly fired a single shot from a handgun at a hybrid SUV driven by the victim’s stepfather, identified as Valente Ayala — hitting the 11-year-old sitting in the back seat, police said.

The boy, identified as Brandon Dominguez-Chavarria, was on his way to school, officials said.

After the child was shot, Ayala then rammed the suspect’s vehicle to stop him from fleeing the scene, causing both of them to come to a stop in the middle of the freeway, officials said.

Both drivers got out of their vehicles and proceeded to get into a heated exchange as a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer happened to be driving by, officials said.

During this argument, two witnesses got in between the two men, with Ayala yelling that the suspect had killed his son, according to the declaration of arrest.

The witnesses then proceeded to open the rear driver’s side passenger door and “observed a juvenile male slumped over in the seat with copious amounts of blood coming from or about the head,” according to the declaration of arrest.

Johns had “spontaneously admitted to officers that he had discharged his firearm” and stated he “did not know there was a kid in the back,” according to the declaration of arrest document.

He then “turned around and placed his hands behind his back without prompting from the officers, in what appeared to allow them to place handcuffs on his wrists,” the declaration of arrest said.

Shortly after the suspect was taken into custody, the Henderson Fire Department arrived at the scene and transported the child to a local hospital, but “despite their best efforts,” the child succumbed to his injuries, police said. The boy’s cause of death was listed as a gunshot wound to the head, the Clark County Coroner said on Monday.

“We lost a life today that we didn’t have to lose,” Henderson Police Department Chief Reggie Rader said during a press conference last week.

Ayala told officials he believed the suspect “intended to shoot him, but based on their speeds,” the bullet struck the child, according to the declaration of arrest.

Ayala was not armed during the road rage incident nor does he own any firearms, the declaration of arrest said.

During his court appearance on Tuesday, Johns’ attorney argued Ayala’s reckless driving led to Johns raising his gun, saying the suspect did not intend to shoot but was trying to “deter the other driver to get away.”

He confirmed Johns did not know there was a child in the car since the stepfather was “driving in that particular manner.”

“I think it’s reasonable for someone to say to themselves at 7:30 a.m. in the morning that they would believe that a child would be in the back seat of a car when you have a stepfather who’s driving in that particular manner,” the defense argued.

The victim’s mother, Rubi Chavarria, pleaded for the suspect to be held without bail, saying her “son’s life was taken away, regardless if you saw him or not.”

“He should not be out on the streets after what he did,” the boy’s mother said while holding back tears. “Road raging does not give you a right to shoot at anybody, even if you didn’t see a child in the back.”

“What if he does this to somebody else? Nobody deserves to go through what I’m going through,” the boy’s mother added.

Johns’ next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 4.

ABC News’ Alex Stone and Tristan Maglunog contributed to this report.