LAS VEGAS – A knife attack on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday started with four dancers dressed as showgirls.
It was about 11:40 in the morning at that time when he was approached by a man who claimed to be a chef outside the Wynn Casino, where musicians were taking pictures with visitors.
The man wanted a picture with them again. But when he pulled out a 12-inch kitchen knife, the musicians began to back away.
Within minutes, eight people were injured – two of them died.
Injuries inflicted in that short window ranged from stab wounds to the chest and back to puncture wounds to the liver and diaphragm. The victims were both locals and tourists, authorities said.
The new information is contained in a three-page police arrest warrant that shows how the mass shooting occurred in the northern part of the Strip five years to the day after the October 2017 mass shooting on the other side of the popular tourist attraction. corridor.
Police have identified the suspect in Thursday’s stabbing as 32-year-old Yoni Barrios, who faces two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder.
On Friday afternoon, a judge ordered that Barrios be held without bail at the Las Vegas City Jail until his arraignment next week, at which time a judge may reconsider extradition.
The victim is considered a ‘devoted wife’
Between the they were stabbed first, according to the report, was the actor Maris DiGiovanni, who went by the name Maris Jordan. He did not survive his injuries.
Dr. Kevin Kuruvilla said he died shortly after arriving at University Medical Center. He was thirty years old.
“Maris loved the beauty of life and lived life to the fullest without limits,” her brother, Gage DiGiovanni, told the USA TODAY Network on Friday. “She was a true and caring friend, a devoted wife, a devoted sister and a loving daughter.”
A LOT:Maris Jordan, the Las Vegas stabbing victim, left a ‘tear of love’ around the world, the family says
DiGiovanni said her sister was not a dancer but worked on the Strip, where she gave tours to tourists and asked for pictures.
After the initial attack on the players, according to the report, the suspect ran down the street west of Wynn, where he encountered 47-year-old Brent Hallet.
Hallet, also a Las Vegas resident, was stabbed in the back. He died on the side of the road outside Wynn, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.
After a few minutes after throwing the knife into some nearby bushes, the prisoner was taken to the custody of the guards of the area. The police later recovered the knife.
‘He has a knife!’: Survivors describe their shock as the stabbing unfolded
The authorities have not yet identified the remaining people. As of Friday morning, one patient remained in critical condition, another was in stable condition and two patients have been released from the hospital, according to a spokeswoman at University Medical Center, Nevada’s only Level 1 trauma center.
“I can’t believe this is happening to me,” said Victoria Caytano, one of the protesters who was released from the hospital on Friday after being treated for a stab wound.
“I got up, I started running,” Caytano told KLAS-TV. “I started yelling, ‘He has a knife!'”
Anna Westby, who suffered a lung injury, said she and Caytano were with DiGiovanni when Barrios attacked them.
“I’m screaming, asking everybody for help,” she told KLAS-TV. “He grabbed me, stabbed me in the back and ran away.”
The suspect thought the girls were ‘teasing’ him, authorities say
Dressed in a blue prison jumpsuit and handcuffed, Barrios faced a judge Friday afternoon for the first time since his arrest. His hands were covered in large orange skins.
Barrios did not speak during the hearing for a long time. A public defender who could speak on his behalf was not listed in court records Friday.
After the trial, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told reporters he would “consider” the death penalty in the case. He said his office will make a decision within 30 to 60 days.
Barrios’ arrest report indicates he is from Guatemala, but he told detectives in an interview after his arrest, he arrived in Las Vegas from California two days before the shooting.
He said he had plans to stay with a friend in Las Vegas, but when he arrived at his friend’s house, Barrios was told he could not stay there.
On the day of the shooting, Barrios said he left his friend’s house early in the morning and took a bus to the Strip, arriving there around 8 am.
When he encountered dancers dressed as showgirls outside the Wynn later that morning, he was angry because he “thought the women were making fun of him and making fun of his clothes” and “let out a rage.”
In the same interview with detectives, according to the report, Barrios confirmed that the knife found in the bushes was the weapon used in the attack.
Distribution: The Associated Press