A man fatally shot his former daughter-in-law and her husband during a deposition hearing on Monday in a child custody case at a law office in an affluent neighborhood of Las Vegas, police and media reports said.
The case starkly illustrated the reality that matters involving child custody are generally considered to be among the most volatile legal disputes in the US court system.
Las Vegas police homicide lieutenant Jason Johansson said at a news conference that the shooter – a man in his 70s – killed himself after firing across the table and killing a man in his 50s as well as a woman in her 30s. Johansson said the shooting in the mid-rise office building in the Summerlin neighborhood happened several minutes after the hearing began on Monday morning.
“It appears our two victims were very specific targets,” Johansson said.
Seven people were in the room at the time of the shooting, Johansson said. The four others, including a court reporter, were able to quickly escape and call police, he said, and the children at the center of the custody case were accounted for and safe.
The Clark county coroner’s office said information on the victims and shooter was not immediately available.
Johansson did not identify the victims or shooter by name but said the shooting happened at the address of Las Vegas attorney Dennis Prince’s law office, the Prince Law Group.
Meanwhile, the Las Vegas television news station KLAS reported that the two people slain were Dennis Prince and his wife, Ashley Prince.
Dennis Prince was representing Ashley Prince during a deposition involving her ex-husband. The ex-husband was being represented by his father, Joe Houston II, who allegedly shot the Princes to death before taking his own life, KLAS reported.
“With profound sadness, Prince Law Group would like to thank everyone who has reached out to us with heartfelt messages of concern and sympathy over the tragic violence that occurred this morning in our offices,” the law group said in a statement on Monday evening.
Investigators searched the shooter’s vehicle, a red Ford Expedition, outside the six-story office building after the shooting, Johansson said. He didn’t say what was found inside.
The Summerlin community spans roughly 13 miles (21km) along the city’s western edge, about 30 minutes west of the Las Vegas strip.
Monday’s double slaying at the Prince Law Group came about six months after authorities said a judge in Maryland was shot to death outside his home by a man who was denied custody of a child because of a history of domestic violence. The suspect in the 19 October killing of the judge, Andrew Wilkinson, later died by suicide.