‘Everyone’s blessing’: Family mourns 14-year-old girl killed in southwest Las Vegas police shooting
Family and friends said the teenage girl killed in Monday’s police shooting was a “shining star.”
Aven Drummond, 14, played volleyball and was involved in multiple extracurricular activities at the charter school she attended, according to her sister Nevaeh Thomas. Thomas also said the girl, who was a sophomore in high school, excelled academically.Drummond was found dead inside her southwest valley home early Monday morning, two days before her 15th birthday. She had planned to celebrate with loved ones over dinner.
“She was the youngest, but she was also 6 feet tall,” Thomas said during a phone call interview Thursday. “She was our big baby and everyone’s blessing.”
Thomas launched a GoFundMe campaign Wednesday to help cover Drummond’s funeral expenses and the medical costs and recovery needs of the girls’ mother, who was also injured in the shooting.
Watch 7@7 — now streaming
“(The) family is facing an unimaginable loss and trying to navigate the devastating aftermath of what happened,” Thomas wrote.
The girls’ mother, Nichole Drummond, had called 911 early Monday morning, reporting that her boyfriend, later identified as 48-year-old Jason Simmons, was chasing her with a blowtorch, according to authorities.
“Nichole was also a victim of this violent crime,” Thomas stated. “She now faces a long and difficult road of physical and emotional recovery. To make an already unimaginable situation even more devastating, their home was intentionally set on fire, leaving Nichole and her family without a home.”
Metropolitan Police Department officials said that when officers entered the home in a gated community near South Buffalo Drive and Peace Way, Simmons had locked himself inside a room.
He fired seven rounds through the door as officer Zaira Venegas-Hernandez tried to get in.
A bullet went through two dozen layers of Venegas-Hernandez’s ballistic vest and caused a chest injury.
Police declared a barricade situation and called in SWAT officers and negotiators. When they reentered, they found Simmons and Drummond dead.
Nichole Drummond, who made it out of the home before SWAT came in, was taken to the hospital for burn injuries and a gunshot wound.
Thomas said it was the first act of violence in her home and that her mother and Simmons had otherwise been in a happy, long-term relationship.
“There were no warning signs,” Thomas said. “There was nothing to suggest something like this would happen.”
Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.
