Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

CRIME:

Man arrested in fatal beating near homeless camp

Click to enlarge photo

Bryan Dryden

Metro Police have arrested a homeless man accused in the slaying of 26-year-old Patrick Kelly, whose body was found Monday on the side of a road near downtown Las Vegas.

The slaying may have been motivated by a fight over a woman, police said in an arrest report.

Detectives went to Grand Central Parkway and Charleston Boulevard, where two people found Kelly's body with evidence of a beating about the head. A homeless camp had been built behind some bushes near the body, police said.

Detectives talked to several clerks at gas stations and convenience stores where Bryan Dryden, 38, originally of Denver, Colo., had visited. People at the homeless camp said they had not seen Dryden for several days after Kelly's body had been found.

About 8:05 p.m. Wednesday, a store clerk called police to report seeing Dryden in the area of Charleston and Martin Luther King boulevards and an officer responded.

Dryden was injured. His right hand was swollen and scraped. He had scrapes on his arms and left hand, a small cut near his left eye and a swollen right knee, the arrest report said. He admitted the knee injury occurred when he dropped his knee onto Kelly's face. He also told police he and Kelly had fought over a woman at the homeless camp.

Dryden was arrested for murder and booked into the Clark County Detention Center, police and detention records said.

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