LAS VEGAS– A Las Vegas attorney and his wife were in the middle of a contentious custody battle over her children from a previous marriage when the woman’s former father-in-law, also a lawyer, shot and killed them during a court hearing last week. According to authorities and family members.
The Las Vegas coroner’s office identified the victims as attorney Dennis Prince and his wife Ashley. Both were shot multiple times, the coroner’s office said, before 77-year-old Joseph Houston shot himself.
Just minutes after the hearing began on the morning of April 8, gunfire erupted outside Dennis Prince’s law firm, Prince Law Group, in the affluent Summerlin neighborhood.
There were seven people in the room at the time of the shooting, police said. The four others, including a court reporter, were able to quickly escape and call the police.
On Monday, Ashley Prince’s parents said at a news conference that their daughter was previously married to Houston’s son and had been trying for years to get sole custody of two of their children. Houston, a lawyer in Nevada since 1974, represented his son in the custody battle, court records show.
Julie Page said they will continue their daughter’s fight to gain custody of the children, ages 4 and 5.
“Our daughter Ashley was a devoted and fierce protector of her children,” Page said, choking back tears as she told reporters that her daughter “would never have given up the fight for her children.”
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which is investigating the shooting, did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment on the family’s statement.
Bryce Page said Monday that his sister “radiated from her core” after meeting Dennis Prince. He said his sister achieved a lifelong dream of creating a “warm, loving environment” for her family after recently welcoming her first child with Dennis Prince.
Prince was a trial attorney in Las Vegas for 30 years and led the Prince Law Group, where the shooting occurred.
He started that firm after building a reputation as a top attorney in personal injury, product liability, negligence and insurance cases in Nevada. According to his professional profiles, he has tried more than 90 cases and has published more than a dozen Supreme Court cases.
“It is with deep sadness that Prince Law Group would like to thank everyone who contacted us with heartfelt messages of concern and condolences regarding the tragic violence that occurred in our offices this morning,” the law group said in a statement last week.
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Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.