According to police, he was jockeying with another driver, Tyler Matthew Johns, for a lane on the Interstate 215 highway in Henderson, Nevada.
Police said the drivers had both rolled down their windows to yell at each other, before Johns, 22, allegedly shot at Ayala’s car.
Then, an unarmed Ayala allegedly rammed Johns’ sedan to stop him from escaping. Both vehicles ended up stopped in the middle of the road.
The motorists continued a heated exchange, and police officers who happened to be driving past at the time attended the scene.
Johns told police he had “discharged his firearm” and turned around and placed his hands behind his back to be handcuffed.
“He told police.
“I didn’t know he had a kid in the back. I f***ing killed him.”
At his court appearance on Tuesday, a lawyer for Johns argued that he didn’t intend to shoot but was trying to “deter the other driver to get away”, a local ABC News affiliate reported.
He said Johns wasn’t aware there was a child in the car because Ayala was “driving in that particular manner”.
“I think it’s reasonable for someone to say to themselves at 7.30am in the morning that they wouldn’t 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 defence argued.
Brandon’s family said of their loss on a GoFundMePage: “Our hearts are shattered as we share the loss of our sweet Brandon Dominguez, who was taken from us far too soon in a tragic road-rage incident.
“There are no words big enough to describe the pain we are feeling. Brandon was the light of our family – our happy, loving boy with the biggest heart, the silliest personality, and a joy that filled every room he entered.”
They also described his “silly, playful spirit”.
“Whether he was showing us the latest TikTok trends, dancing around the house, or laughing at a new video he found, he always knew how to brighten our days,” the family wrote.
Johns was arrested on Friday and booked for open murder – defined as first-degree murder and other included offences – and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle.
He will be held without bail, and his next hearing is scheduled for December 4.
“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 Tuesday’s hearing.
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