Las Vegas Stabbing Suspect Is in Country Illegally; California Knew His Criminal Past
A new report says the man who allegedly went on a stabbing spree on the Las Vegas strip Thursday is in the United States illegally.
Yoni Barrios, 32, is a citizen of Guatemala, and is not legally in America, Fox News reported, citing a source it did not name with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The report said Barrios, who faces six counts of attempted murder and two counts of murder, has a criminal record in California.
Barrios is accused of stabbing eight people, leaving two people dead and six wounded. Las Vegas residents Brent Allan Hallett, 47, and Maris Mareen DiGiovanni, 30, were identified as the slain individuals.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson also said Barrios is not a U.S. citizen.
“My information is that he’s not a citizen of the United States,” Wolfson told reporters on Friday, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Review-Journal said an arrest report said Barrios is a native of Mexico.
According to an arrest report cited by the Associated Press, Barrios thought people were laughing at him so he told police he “let the anger out.”
The report also said Barrios told one victim “sorry, man,” before the man was stabbed in the back.
The arrest report said the fatal confrontation began when Barrios encountered a group of street performers posing as showgirls, and asked to have his picture taken with them. The report said he was wearing a long-sleeve white jacket. He told them he was a chef and pulled a large knife from a suitcase.
Some of the women said they felt uncomfortable around Barrios and backed away. At that point, one woman who tried to run away was stabbed in the back, followed by DiGiovanni, the report said.
“Barrios thought the women were laughing at him and making fun of his clothing,” the arrest report stated.
“Barrios started running and looking for groups of people so he could ‘let the anger out,’” the report said.
The incident at the strip came after Barrios traveled to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, but was told by a friend he could not stay at the friend’s house. Barrios took a bus to the strip.
“Barrios stated that on the bus ride to the strip people were making fun of him and he wasn’t being treated like a human being,” the report said.
The report said Barrios went to the Wynn Las Vegas casino. He asked a janitor about jobs and spoke to a security guard, telling him he wanted to sell his knives to get money to travel home to Guatemala.
The guard to him to “jump in front of a train,” the report said.
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