The 11-day period commencing June 25 turned out to be uncharacteristically violent for the Las Vegas Strip, although all three incidents that occurred were isolated events that took place between individuals with personal grievances and agendas, as opposed to being random killing sprees. That doesn't make the events any less deadly or disturbing, but it would appear that their proximity was a coincidence and not indicative of any underlying trend of escalating violence on the Strip. At least one of the incidents has already resulted in bloody repercussions, however.
It all started in the early hours of June 25, when two groups got into a fight in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, apparently over an offensive remark made about a girl in one of the parties. According to the police report, the initial fracas was diffused by mall security, who forced one group to leave.
However, later that same night the two groups ran into each other again, this time on the pedestrian walkway between MGM Grand and New York-New York, and another fight broke out. According to reports we've read, Victor Quijano claims that Andres Armando Elena hit his friend with a broken bottle and then threatened him with it, so he stabbed him in the side with a stiletto knife in self-defense. Elena was taken to University Medical Center's trauma unit, where he later died.
In addition to charges of both murder and attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon in relation to Elena, Quijano is also charged with a felony count of battery with the use of a deadly weapon for allegedly stabbing a second victim during the incident. He's currently being held at the Clark County Detention Center.
The death of 21-year-old Andres Armando Elena, who had already been represented by the public defender's office no less than eight times, apparently has sparked a feud that left another seven people injured when a gunman pretending to be a mourner opened fire at Elena's funeral service, which took place at the Palm Mortuary on July 6. None of the seven gunshot victims, who included a teenager, suffered life-threatening injuries. Police are still searching for the shooter.
Meanwhile, in the early hours of Monday, July 4, Pedro Carlos Robledo, 28, was accused of stabbing 21-year-old Javier Medrano-Padilla multiple times with a kitchen knife outside The Cosmopolitan. Apparently, at first two other males were taken into custody in connection with the stabbing, but claimed that several men, including Robledo, had "jumped" them and that a fight ensued, but they denied stabbing anyone. Surveillance footage later backed up their story and Robledo was arrested on the strength of the footage and of an anonymous tip from a concerned citizen who claimed Robledo confessed to having stabbed someone on the Strip.
Robledo apparently told detectives that he knew Medrano-Padilla and acted "in self-defense" but claims to remember nothing because he blacked out from alcohol. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a count of murder with a deadly weapon and is also being held on charges related to other pending cases against him, including battery/domestic violence and misdemeanor hit-and-run.
Perhaps the most bizarre in this string of fatal incidents took place at O'Sheas casino on July 6, when a Florida high school football coach killed a Utah man with a single blow to the jaw, apparently as the result of an argument that broke out between the two men in the restroom. Benjamin Hawkins claimed he was acting in self-defense and pleaded not guilty to murder when he appeared in court later that week. A date of July 21 has been set to hear evidence in the slaying of John Massie, who the Clark County coroner determined died of a head injury resulting from the punch and a fall to the floor.
