Metro Police investigators look over a car involved in an apparent road rage homicide on I-15 southbound between Spring Mountain and Flamingo roads Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020.
Published Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020 | 8:41 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2020 | 11:21 a.m.
A key freeway in Las Vegas reopened Wednesday following a more than nine-hour closure to investigate a crash that revealed a driver was shot in the head and killed in what investigators think might have been a road rage killing.
The incident closed Interstate 15 near the Las Vegas Strip until 10 a.m., snarling the morning commute for thousands of motorists on a freeway that's also the main route between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.
The shooting happened shortly after midnight while a woman in her late 30s was driving home from work at a downtown Las Vegas casino, Lt. Ray Spencer said. Her name was not immediately made public.
“What we’re trying to determine is what led to the shooting,” Spencer told reporters. “It is potentially a road rage incident.”
Spencer asked for witnesses to contact police if they saw the woman's blue Nissan Versa before it veered across the freeway and slammed into a Dodge Charger about 12:20 a.m.
The man driving the Charger was hospitalized with unspecified injuries that Spencer said did not appear to be life-threatening. Spencer said the man is not a suspect in the shooting.
Nevada Highway Patrol troopers initially thought the woman died in the crash, Spencer said.
