Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Man arrested after hammer attack on homeless person ‘decoy’

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Shane Schindler

A man jailed for bludgeoning a Metro Police decoy mannequin with a four-pound hammer did so at the same intersection where two homeless men were found beaten to death in that same manner earlier this year, according to a police report.

Shane Schindler, 30, was booked into Clark County Detention Center on Feb. 24, just one day after he struck the bugged decoy mannequin, staged at the corner of Ogden Avenue and City Parkway, using both arms to “generate maximum force” and “with the intent to kill.”

The mannequin, designed to resemble a sleeping human being, was completely covered in blankets, police said, making it “impossible” to determine that it wasn’t a real person.

On Jan. 3, police found the body of Daniel Aldape, a 46-year-old homeless man, in an empty parking lot at the southeast corner of Ogden and City Parkway. Bundled in a blanket he used to keep warm, Aldape had been killed while sleeping, police said, after being struck with a blunt object.

One month later on Feb. 3, police found the body of David Dunn, 60, another homeless man, at the opposite corner of the same intersection. Like Aldape, Dunn was covered in a blanket when he was struck multiple times in the head, police said.

Autopsies of the two men revealed they both had fractured skulls caused with an object police believe to be a hammer.

On the night of Feb. 22 at 10:50 p.m., police placed the human mannequin decoy, which resembled a homeless person sleeping, completely covered by a blanket at the southwest corner of intersection where Aldape was killed, the arrest report said. At 3 a.m. the next morning, Schindler approached the area of the mannequin decoy, then stayed in there for “a period of time,” police said.

After surveying the area and approaching the mannequin for a third time, Schindler pulled a hood over his head to conceal his face and struck the mannequin on the head “several times,” police said. After being taken to Metro headquarters, he told police he kicked the mannequin before later admitting hitting it with the hammer. But he said he “knew it was a mannequin” before striking it.

Court records show Schindler will next appear in court on March 15 on a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. His bail was set at $50,000.

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