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March 28, 2024

Police: Suspect in random stabbings attacked man at jail

Triple Stabbings and Fatal

L.E. Baskow

Metro investigates a stabbing at an ARCO convenience store in the 500 block of North Lamb Boulevard where a male customer was fatally stabbed and likely related to two others nearby on Wednesday, April 19, 2017.

Updated Friday, April 21, 2017 | 4:13 p.m.

Triple Stabbings and Fatal

Metro investigates a stabbing at an ARCO convenience store in the 500 block of North Lamb Boulevard where a male customer was fatally stabbed and likely related to two others nearby on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. Launch slideshow »
Richi Briones

Richi Briones

A man accused of randomly stabbing a customer to death at a convenience store on Wednesday attacked another detainee at the county jail with his fists as he was waiting to be booked, according to Metro Police documents.

The other man was restrained in a chair at the jail when Richi Briones, 32, hit him in the head multiple times without provocation, police said. In an interview with officers after the incident, Briones only said “he got some payback,” police said.

He now faces an additional count of battery, police said.

After an hourslong manhunt, Briones was arrested Wednesday night at a bus stop on Boulder Highway in the stabbings of two people and an attempted attack on a third person, police said. Police described the Wednesday morning attacks in the east valley as “totally random.”

Shortly before 11 a.m., Briones walked into a convenience store at Lamb Boulevard and Bonanza Road and grabbed a customer at the cash register from behind, stabbing him multiple times, police said. The man, identified today by the Clark County Coroner’s Office as Balente Gonzalez, 31, was pronounced dead at University Medical Center.

Briones is also accused of stabbing and critically wounding a 52-year-old man in an alley in the 4400 block of East Charleston Boulevard and attempting to attack a person in the 4300 block of Stewart Avenue, according to police.

Briones was booked on counts including murder, attempted murder and battery with a deadly weapon, police said.

Police described Briones, who was heard rambling incoherently, mentioning something about a cartel and drugs, as “crazed.” His mother said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

When questioned by detectives after his arrest, Briones said he hadn’t slept the previous night because he had smoked meth and was worried that “the cartel was coming for him,” according to an arrest report. He said he thought cartel hit men might have killed his family members in Nevada, California and Texas, according to the report.

It wasn’t the first time officers had encountered Briones acting erratically, police said.

While investigating an unrelated case in November, officers noticed Briones smelled of lighter fluid, police said. He was treated for chemical burns and reportedly told medics that he planned to set himself on fire and run into traffic, police said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.