LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas police have arrested a man suspected of stabbing two people to death and wounding six others along the tourist strip of The Strip. Yoni Barrios, 32, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement.
It was not immediately known if Barrios had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Three people were hospitalized in critical condition and three others were in stable condition, according to Las Vegas police, who said they began receiving 911 calls around 11:40 a.m. Thursday about the stabbings of the other. across the street from the Wynn casino and hotel.
Barrios, who is not a Las Vegas resident, was stopped by Sands Hotel security guards and Metropolitan Police officers while he was running down a sidewalk on The Strip, police said.
“This was an isolated incident,” Metropolitan Police Deputy Chief James LaRochelle said in a statement. “All evidence indicates that Barrios acted alone and there are no other suspects at this time.”
Police said they were still investigating the motive but do not believe there was an altercation before the attacks.
The Clark County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victims as Brent Allan Hallett, 47, and Maris Mareen Digiovanni, 30, both Las Vegas residents. The names of those injured in the attack were not immediately released.
The initial stabbing was unprovoked and occurred on the east sidewalk of Las Vegas Boulevard. The suspect then headed south and stabbed others, LaRochelle said.
The man fled and was followed by people who called 911 before he was taken into custody, authorities added. Police recovered a “large knife with a long blade” that is believed to have been the weapon in the attacks, LaRochelle said, calling the case a “difficult murder investigation to understand.”
There were no other suspects in the case and “The Strip is safe,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said.
“Residents and tourists are the victims of this crime,” Lombardo added.
Witnesses told Las Vegas television that some of the victims appeared to be showgirls or street performers who take pictures with tourists in the area.
The suspect told a woman he was a chef and that he wanted to take a picture with the knife of her and some of the showgirls, but the man started stabbing people when the group refused her offer, the woman told KTNV.
Jason Adams told KLAS that he witnessed the attack on a showgirl. “This guy came and ran and started stabbing this lady in front of me and she ran around the escalator and tried to go under the bridge and her friend was trying to help her,” Adams said, adding that the attack happened. very quickly.
Pierre Fandrich, a tourist from Canada, told KTNV he didn’t see the suspect as he walked down the Strip, but he did say he thought he heard “three or four showgirls laughing” when it turned out they were screaming.
Fandrich said he saw “a lot of blood” after one of the women ran across a bridge, another was on the ground, and one more, who was trying to help the woman on the ground, had a stab wound to her back.
The witness also told the television station that he thought one of the victims had fallen from the bridge due to the amount of blood on the scene.
Las Vegas stabbing suspect appeared
The man suspected of a stabbing on the Las Vegas Strip that left two dead and six injured appears to have been in Los Angeles two days before the killings.
In a video recorded by Telemundo 52, a man who identified himself as Yoni Barrios approached the cameraman in front of Los Angeles City Hall and asked for help, saying that he had lost his house and everything he had.
Barrios was interviewed at Metropolitan Police Headquarters, where he told officers that he had come to Las Vegas from California a few days before the attack and that he was staying with a friend, KNSV-TV reported.
The friend told Barrios he couldn’t stay there, so he boarded a bus to the strip Thursday morning, police said.
Telemundo 52 cameraman Jorge López was in downtown Los Angeles on assignment when the man approached. He did not realize the importance of the video until the arrest in Las Vegas.
“He was asking for help,” Lopez said. “He kept telling me, ‘I just want a chance, I just want to start from scratch.'”
In the police interview, Barrios told officers that he had left California for Las Vegas in search of a job as a chef.
Barrios was arrested Wednesday and booked on suspicion of two counts of murder with a deadly weapon and six counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, police said Friday morning.
Police responded to 911 calls about the stabbings around noon from near the Wynn casino and hotel. Barrios was stopped by officers and security guards from the Sands Hotel and Casino as he ran down a Strip sidewalk, police said.
Barrios is believed to have thrown the knife used in the attack into the bushes, according to police. The weapon was recovered.
Police have not identified a motive for the attack. There did not appear to be any kind of confrontation between Barrios and the victims before the stabbings, police said.
“The initial altercation or stabbing occurs in the sidewalk area, it appears to be unprovoked, there is no altercation beforehand,” Deputy Police Chief James LaRochelle told reporters. During the interview, Barrios said he walked into a shopping mall looking for a ride back to California before heading to the Wynn Hotel and talking to a concierge about job openings, police said. He later asked the showgirls for a photo and told officers they appeared to be taunting him, police said.
Witnesses said they saw the two women run from a man with a knife before they were stabbed in front of the Wynn. He told police that he started looking for groups of people so he could “let the anger out on him,” KNSV-TV reported.
Two of the eight victims died. The medical examiner’s office identified them as Brent Allan Hallett, 47, and Maris Mareen Digiovanni, 30, both of Las Vegas, a Clark County spokesman said.
Three victims were in critical condition.
They were described as a mix of visiting tourists and Las Vegas residents.
Barrios appeared for arraignment on Friday afternoon but was rescheduled for an appearance later this month. It was not immediately known if Barrios has an attorney.