Las Vegas man arrested for girlfriend’s murder in front of her son, 6, who ran for help
A Las Vegas man has been charged with shooting dead a woman believed to be his girlfriend in front of her six-year-old son, who then ran to a neighbor saying his mom had just been killed.
Ishmil Swafford, 43, was arrested Friday and booked into the Clark County jail on a single count of open murder with a deadly weapon.
He was ordered held without bond pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for Nov. 29, according to jail records.
Police responded at around 1:20 am. last Thursday to a 911 call reporting that a woman had been shot at a home located in the 5800 block of Spectacular Boulevard.
Cops who arrived on the scene found 46-year-old Yetundi Maples dead from a gunshot wound.
Investigators later learned that Maples’ 6-year-old son had walked to a nearby home and told Alejandra Verduzco: “My mom just got killed,” the neighbor told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week.
Verduzco described the boy as crying and shaking.
“I was like, ‘What happened?’ And he was like, ‘She just got shot in the head,’” the woman told the outlet.
By the time police responded to the scene, the gunman had fled, but they said their investigation indicated that Maples had been shot by her boyfriend.
In the wake of Swafford’s arrest, police have not confirmed his relationship with Maples, but a woman claiming to be the victim’s daughter wrote in the description of a GoFundMe campaign that the 43-year-old suspect was her mom’s live-in boyfriend.
Donisha Thomas praised her baby brother for being “brave enough” to run for help after their mother was gunned down before his eyes.
“We are so thankful my brother was not harmed,” she wrote.
