metro police
A screen grab of a Metro Police video shows the arrest of 27-year-old Terrell Rhodes Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Rhodes is accused of killing his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son, Amari Nicholson, who was reported missing on May 5.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 | 9 p.m.
Once in Metro Police custody, detectives cuffed the murder suspect to a “secured mounting plate" in an interview room.
About 20 minutes after the man accused of beating his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son to death was secured at Metro headquarters on May 11, Terrell Tavoris Rhodes tried to free his hand and repeatedly told officers, “Let me out of here” and “I can’t go back,” police said.
Rhodes, 27, then got up on a chair, lunged across a table and grabbed a Metro detective’s gun with his free hand, according to a criminal complaint released this week.
In a struggle with officers, Rhodes allegedly said, “I’m going to kill a mother (expletive).”
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In addition to the murder count for the death of Amari Nicholson, the incident tacked on multiple counts for Rhodes of attempted murder, assault on a protected person with a deadly weapon and resisting an officer with a gun.
Rhodes remained held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center, where he’s been since he allegedly confessed to killing Amari after the boy had wet his pants.
This undated photo shows Amari Nicholson, a Las Vegas toddler reported missing on May 5. On May 11, Metro Police, who circulated the image in a missing persons flyer, announced the 2-year-old was dead and booked his mother's boyfriend on a count of murder.
Amari’s body was found May 12, a week after Rhodes and his girlfriend, the boy’s mother, reported that he’d been kidnapped.
Amari’s mother left him with Rhodes while she traveled out of state to help her mother following an injury.
On May 5, Rhodes reported that a woman claiming to be the boy’s aunt, whom he didn’t know, had gone to pick up the boy from their apartment at an extended-stay hotel at 3684 Paradise Road.
Metro initially deemed the disappearance as a missing persons case, and volunteers mobilized to pass out fliers searching for the toddler, while police canvassed the area “day and night,” knocking on doors.
The probe broke open and Rhodes eventually confessed to striking Amari multiple times with a closed fist until the boy turned blue and stopped breathing, police said.
After attempting CPR, Rhodes disposed of the boy’s body about 400 feet away from the apartment complex, police said.
The Clark County district attorney told KVVU Channel 5 that “the boy’s injuries were pretty severe, and all indications are that he was beaten to death and then left in a dumpster.”
Less than a year before Amari’s death, the Clark County Division of Child and Family Services investigated a child neglect allegation at his home, but the child was “deemed safe,” agency records show.
After officers disarmed Rhodes in the interview room, he reportedly told them, “I wanna die” and “kill me.”
Rhodes is next due in court on June 1.
