A still from Las Vegas police body-worn camera video responding to a domestic violence call involving a man with a blowtorch (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department).
A domestic violence call in Las Vegas escalated into an armed standoff this week, ending with the deaths of a teenage girl and an adult male attacker, Nevada authorities said.
Officers were sent Monday to a home on Pigeon Point Court after a woman called 911 and reported that her boyfriend, 48-year-old Jason Simmons, was chasing her with a blowtorch.
“He’s about to burn me up!” the woman yelled to dispatchers.
Assistant Sheriff Fred Haas, a spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, outlined new details of the case during a Thursday news conference.
Police said the caller remained on the phone for an extended period, later taking cover in a bathroom after being shot. She also told dispatchers that the man appeared intent on setting the entire home on fire.
As officers entered the residence, they eventually came upon the suspect, who had barricaded himself inside a room. Authorities said he fired seven rounds through the locked door, one of which struck Officer Zaira Venegas-Hernandez, 36, and penetrated her Kevlar vest.
Venegas-Hernandez returned fire 11 times with her Glock 9 mm, according to police. Officers then pulled back from the home and classified the scene as a barricade or standoff situation.
As police left, another officer also returned fire on the suspect, Capt. Adam Seely said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“They had to deal with fire, smoke, gasoline in the area, and still responded into that residence to help those people that were in need,” Haas said. “Imagine the emotions from this department.”
Eventually, the woman who made the 911 call told police that Simmons had shot himself, according to law enforcement.
Back inside the residence, a SWAT team and crisis negotiators discovered the suspect and a teenage girl suffering from gunshot wounds, police said. Both the girl — who has not been identified by name — and Simmons were pronounced dead at the scene.
Police later identified the girl as the daughter of the 911 caller. Police have not revealed who shot the girl.
As for the woman, she was able to leave the residence shortly before police arrived. She was found suffering from a gunshot wound and burns, and she was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she remains in critical condition from her injuries, police said.
Investigators said the suspect was found with a .223-caliber rifle, three handguns and a blowtorch in his possession.
Had Simmons survived, he would have been charged with murder, attempted murder, arson, kidnapping, mayhem, and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, Haas said.
The post ‘He’s about to burn me up!’: Boyfriend uses blowtorch to try to set girlfriend on fire, goes berserk on cops, resulting in standoff and teenage girl’s death, police say first appeared on Law & Crime.
