Victims in shooting spree describe bullets flying, terror

Gunfire soared over the heads of four children hunkered under a table in an RV crawling down a desert highway.

Seconds earlier, the kids ages 12, 9, 5 and 3 had been eating Pop-Tarts behind their mother and father, Cherie Epple and Rusty Ragan, as they headed to Lake Havasu City on Thanksgiving morning.

Head on, a black Toyota Camry plowed down U.S. Highway 95 in western Arizona along the Colorado River.

It was 8:45 a.m.

A man with black, bushy hair leaned out the passenger window.

Epple yelled, “They’re shooting!”

Ragan told the children to get down, and he hit the brakes, blindly steering his family to safety.

None of them knew, as prosecutors have since alleged, that brothers Christopher McDonnell and Shawn McDonnell, along with his wife, Kayleigh Lewis, were on a two-state, 11-hour path of destruction, determined to terrorize anyone in their way.

A series of shootings that started in Southern Nevada left one man dead and targeted nearly two dozen people, prosecutors said. Twenty-two-year-old Kevin Mendiola Jr., of North Las Vegas, was killed and three others were injured in front of a 7-Eleven in an affluent area of Henderson.

The three defendants made a brief court appearance Friday via video from the Clark County Detention Center, where they were being held without bail. Each faces dozens of charges, including murder, terrorism and conspiracy. Prosecutors have said that they could seek the death penalty.

Defense attorneys told a judge that they wanted to have Christopher McDonnell evaluated by a psychiatrist and asked for time to gather mitigating evidence before prosecutors made their decision on capital punishment.

Shawn McDonnell remained in a wheelchair, having suffered gunshot wounds to his leg during a chase with Arizona troopers that ended in a rollover crash.

‘I thought I was going to die’

After their indictments this week, the Review-Journal obtained partial grand jury testimony, which included statements from nine of 14 Arizona victims — five who are children. Personal stories of bullets and shattered glass detailed a holiday nightmare along an otherwise-desolate desert road.

“How close was that area to where the kids were — where the bullet came through?” prosecutor Michael Schwartzer asked Ragan.

He replied: “Within inches. If one of my kids were standing up or, you know, it’s just, it’s scary to even think about because any of them could have been you know, not paying attention or not listening to us about getting down. … We lucked out with how, you know, none of us got hurt physically.”

On Thanksgiving morning, another woman, Christine Curry Demoss, a blackjack dealer, said she was driving along U.S. 95 when a gunshot shattered her window “a couple inches” from her head; plastic pieces of her car were shredded in the explosion and ripped into her arm and hand on the wheel.

Rodolfo Cabrera was headed toward Parker, Arizona, on U.S. 95 in his truck at the same time. He spotted the Camry stopped in the middle of the road, straddling the double yellow line. The front passenger door was open, and a man peered toward him. Cabrera stopped about 70 yards away, and the man raised his arm.

“And that’s when I heard a gunshot,” Cabrera testified.

He reversed his truck, and a second shot pierced his windshield.

“I actually thought I was going to die that day,” Cabrera told the grand jury. “After the second bullet, I felt the moment I turned around and exposed my passenger side that that might be it for me, but I had no choice but to put some distance, because I did get caught off guard. I was really upset that I got caught off guard, and I did feel that day was my last day.”

He called 911.

Police response

Arizona Department of Public Safety Sgt. John Watlington logged in at 9:06 a.m. and immediately responded to a call of “shots fired.”

Within a half hour, he rolled up on the flipped Camry and a plume of dust on a straight and flat section of Arizona Route 72.

“I made the decision to get in pretty close because I was using my vehicle as cover or if people are going to come out shooting I’m going to use my vehicle, if I need to as a weapon,” he testified. “I hit my switch and grabbed my patrol rifle … I hit the bolt and charged it back, released it putting a round into the chamber and I stepped out from my patrol car closing the door.”

Other troopers called for the three people inside the sedan to step out with their hands up. A dog poked its snout through the open passenger side window and barked. Christopher McDonnell, a 29-year-old man with facial tattoos, crawled out.

Shawn McDonnell, 31, grabbed a cigarette and aimed a handgun at a trooper, Watlington testified.

“I verbalized the threat by yelling gun but I don’t remember that,” he said. “And I dropped my safety, indexed my trigger and (activated) my optic, the red dot on my optic on my rifle, and I fired.”

Wounded from six gunshots, with three fingers missing and a hole in his left leg, McDonnell howled. His recent bride, 26, was still in the car.

“I am God,” he shouted. “I am God.”

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.