At least two people were killed and half a dozen were injured after a man rioted with knives near a Las Vegas casino on Thursday, police said.
Las Vegas police received a stabbing report at 11:42 am. Officers who arrived at the scene “quickly identified the suspect” and took him into custody “without further incident,” law enforcement said in a statement. The arrest occurred “within minutes” of the stabbing at block 3100 of South Las Vegas Boulevard, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference this afternoon.
The stabbings took place in broad daylight in a tourist-frequented area near the Wynn Casino.
The eight victims included one who was pronounced dead on the spot and another who was pronounced dead at University Medical Center, a hospital a few miles from the scene of the accident. Police said three of the six injured were in critical condition. The victims included both tourists and locals, Lombardo said.
The suspect is a man who appears to be in his early 30s and is unlikely to be a local resident, law enforcement said. Law enforcement was unable to immediately determine the suspect’s motives, but the stabbing seems unfounded, James LaRochelle, a senior Las Vegas police officer, told reporters.
A “large knife with a long blade” was found at the scene, he added.
The suspect initially stabbed two people before heading south and stabbing five more people. An eighth person was stabbed in a third location nearby, LaRochelle said.
Although police did not disclose the identity of the victims, witnesses told local media that the showgirls were among them.
The alleged attacker said he was a chef, witnesses told KTNV Las Vegas, and asked to take pictures with the showgirls. When they refused, the attack began, KTNV reports.
A witness interviewed by a local TV station said he saw a victim scream that she was stabbed. He took off his shirt, apparently to put pressure on his chest wound, before sitting on the floor of an escalator, shaking. It took about 10 minutes for first responders to arrive to treat the man, he said.
