Las Vegas law office shooting survivor recounts heated meeting: ‘He was pointing a gun’
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — One of the people who survived a shooting last week inside a Las Vegas law office said she had no idea the man she was sitting next to would shoot and kill two people before turning the gun on himself.
Joe Houston II, 77, shot and killed Dennis Prince, 57, and his wife, Ashley Prince, 30, during a child custody hearing in Dennis Prince’s Summerlin law office on Monday, April 8. Joe Houston, another attorney, was at the hearing representing his son, Dylan Houston, in his custody dispute with Ashley Prince.
During the deposition, Joe Houston shot and killed the Princes before dying by suicide.
Attorney Lisa Rasmussen was also at the hearing to represent Joe Houston’s wife, Katherine “Kelly” Houston in her capacity as the children’s grandmother.
“It was unusual in the sense that there was no pleasantry,” Rasmussen said Tuesday about the deposition. Rasmussen was seated next to Kelly Houston on her left and Joe Houston on her right. Across the table were the Princes and another attorney in the law firm, she said. A court reporter sat at the head of the table.
“It was very tense,” Rasmussen said. “I already knew it was going to be tense, but it was more tense than I would have anticipated.”
The deposition involved a years-long custody dispute involving Dylan Houston and Ashley Prince’s two young children. The hearing began around 10 a.m. By 10:04 a.m., the 911 calls started coming in.
“Joe then said to Dennis, ‘Before we start, is there any hope that we can resolve any of the issues for the sake of the kids?’” Rasmussen said. “And Dennis didn’t respond at all. He didn’t even acknowledge the question. There was just nothing and instead, he turned to Kelly and started asking the deposition questions.”
A few minutes later, it is not what Rasmussen remembers seeing, it’s what she heard.
“[Dennis had] asked maybe three questions and then there was just was just this horrible noise,” Rasmussen said. “I turned and I saw on my right side, a barrel, just a barrel, and a sleeve, like a dress sleeve. Then I saw him stand up and point very decidedly a gun across the table, and then it was clear to me what was happening and that that noise was a gunshot and that was a gun and he was pointing a gun.”
Rasmussen then ran out of the conference room with Kelly Houston, finding a hiding spot in a nearby office suite. It was there she relayed what had happened to 911, telling the dispatcher Joe Houston had fired a weapon.
For hours, she did not know if anyone had died in the shooting. But there was one sign.
“I was painfully aware that there were like eight ambulances lined up on the street outside and none of them ever came in, and none of them left,” she said.
“Do you think he came to that deposition with the intent to kill them?” 8 News Now Investigator David Charns asked Rasmussen.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever know,” Rasmussen said. “I do know some things wouldn’t make sense if that were his plan.”
Rasmussen said that is because Joe Houston had asked Dennis Prince not to bring Ashley Prince to the hearing. When Rasmussen and the Houstons arrived at the office together, they wanted to sit on the other side of the table, which was farther away from the exit.
“Dennis walked by and opened the door and said, ‘Oh no no. I sit on that side. You need to move to the other side. He said, ‘I don’t want my back to the door,’” Rasmussen recalled about the quick conversation about seating before the deposition began.
The day of the shooting, Rasmussen waited until about midnight to retrieve her phone and purse, which were covered in blood.
While Rasmussen does not know why Joe Houston killed his ex-daughter-in-law and her husband, she does know the custody case had boiled over for years.
Dylan Houston was required to take breathalyzer tests before spending time with his children, according to previous court documents in the child custody case. The court battle also included a protective order against Dylan Houston in April 2022, which was extended, court records show.
Ashley Prince had expressed safety concerns before Monday’s child custody deposition.
Five days before the shooting, Dylan Houston, who is also an attorney, emailed Dennis Prince, “You have no idea what’s coming do you, all your cards are on the table and I haven’t played one [laughing emoji],” according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained.
Rasmussen said the family court system failed all the families involved, noting a child custody evaluation a judge ordered two years ago was not completed.
“There’s an inefficiency in the family court that allowed this to linger for this period of time to fester,” she said.
Rasmussen walked away with her life, though a week later, she continues to play what happened over and over in her head. Deep down she knows all she could do was run.
“I was in no position to stop him or say, ‘Joe, put the gun down,’ or to tackle him or to knock the gun out – I just — that to me was not an option,” she said. “My instinct was flight.”
On the afternoon of the deadly shooting, a judge ordered that Ashley Prince’s sister should be temporarily awarded custody of the two children rather than Dylan Houston. Dennis Prince’s children said their step-sister, born to their father and Ashley Prince in December, was also in the care of a legal guardian.
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