Police tape blocks off a road near where multiple people were stabbed in front of a Strip casino in Las Vegas, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Police say an attacker has killed two people and wounded six others in stabbings along the Las Vegas Strip.
Friday, Oct. 7, 2022 | 2:51 p.m.
Yoni Barrios
The suspect in a mass stabbing on the Las Vegas Strip attacked a group of women dressed as showgirls because he thought they were laughing at him and he was “letting the anger out,” according to Metro Police.
Running down the sidewalk, Yoni Barrios, 32, continued stabbing people, reportedly apologizing to one victim before plunging a knife into his back, police said.
Two people died and six others were wounded late Thursday morning before Barrios threw his knife into some bushes and was arrested, police said. Three of the surviving victims were critically injured, police said.
Barrios was being held at the Clark County Detention Center on two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder, police said.
Barrios, who claimed to be a chef, asked the women in showgirl costumes to take a picture with him and his knife, according to a Metro arrest report.
One of the women told police she felt uncomfortable and started backing away, while another said they thought his request was strange, according to the report.
Surveillance video showed Barrios then stabbing 30-year-old Maris DiGiovanni before randomly attacking other people, the report said. DiGiovanni, who was stabbed in the chest, was taken to University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead, authorities said.
Among the victims were 47-year-old Las Vegas resident Brent Hallet, who was pronounced dead at the scene, and two people walking with their mother, police said. Hallet died from a stab wound to the back, the Clark County Coroner's Office said.
One of the victims, who was walking with his wife, said he heard Barrios say, “Sorry man,” before stabbing him in the back, the report said.
Barrios told police he became angry when he thought the showgirls were laughing at him and making fun of his clothes, the arrest report said. He told police he did not say anything to the victims, the report said.
He also said he was “hoping officers would shoot him," according to the report.
Barrios came to Las Vegas a few days ago from California, police said. He took a bus to the Strip Thursday morning and told police he was teased and not “treated like a human being,” the report said.
He went to a casino on the north Strip and inquired about job opportunities as a custodian, the report said. He then walked outside the casino, where he encountered the women in the showgirl costumes, police said.
The incident was reported about 11:40 a.m. in the 3100 block of Las Vegas Boulevard South, near Sands Avenue, police said.
Officers, who responded to 911 calls within minutes, took the suspect into custody and recovered the knife, police said.
“This is clearly a very tragic and hard to understand — hard to comprehend — murder investigation that deeply impacts our community," Deputy Chief James LaRochelle said during a news briefing Thursday at Metro headquarters.
