Southwest Las Vegas standoff ends with two dead, wounded officer

LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — A domestic violence response escalated into a barricade situation, a house fire, and a double fatality that left a suspect and a teenage girl dead and a police officer injured, authorities said.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released body-worn camera footage detailing the early Monday confrontation at a home near Peace Way and Buffalo Drive in southwest Las Vegas.

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The incident began when a woman called 911 pleading for help.

“He’s about to burn me up!” she told dispatchers, reporting that her boyfriend was attempting to set her on fire with a blowtorch.

Responding officers entered the home to rescue the woman and a teenage girl but encountered a locked master bedroom door. When Officer Zaira Venegas-Hernandez, 29, attempted to kick the door open, the suspect fired several rounds through the door.

“Officer Venegas Hernandez attempted to kick the door, and the suspect fired several rounds through the door, striking her,” Assistant Sheriff Fred Haas said during a media briefing.

While Venegas-Hernandez’s ballistic vest stopped the bullet, she suffered injuries from the impact. The initial 911 caller was hospitalized and remains in critical condition.

Neither the suspect nor the teenage girl survived the encounter. The Clark County coroner’s office identified the suspect as Jason Alan Simmons, 48, and ruled his cause of death as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The identity of the deceased teenager has not yet been released.