Las Vegas police make arrest in stabbings of four homeless people

Metro Police used hidden cameras to identify a suspect arrested in the stabbings of four homeless people near the UNLV campus, authorities said.

Police have not established a motive for the attacks over the last week, which left two women dead and two other people critically injured, Metro Capt. Dori Koren said.

One of the surviving victims is a homeless man who was attacked as he sat in a wheelchair, police said.

Metro today announced the arrest of Christopher Martell, 33, on two counts of open murder and two counts of attempted murder. He was taken into custody Wednesday and was being held at the Clark County Detention Center, police said.

“There’s no doubt this is a very tragic situation,” Koren said.

Martell was arrested after officers responded about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday to the 2000 block of East Flamingo Road, where a woman in her 30s was attacked while pushing a man in a wheelchair, police said. After the woman fell to the ground, the attacker stabbed the man, police said.

Both victims were hospitalized in critical but stable condition, police said.

Police used witness descriptions and cameras they hid in the area after two previous fatal stabbings to identify Martell as a suspect, Metro Lt. Jason Johansson said.

Patrol officers stopped Martell in the neighborhood and confiscated a knife police believe was used in all four attacks, Koren said.

The first stabbing was reported about 6:10 p.m. on Sept. 14 in the 1400 block of East University Avenue, police said.

A homeless woman appeared to have been sleeping outside a business when she was stabbed, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Just a few blocks away, another homeless woman in her 70s was found stabbed to death about 6:55 a.m. Tuesday near Flamingo and Algonquin Drive, police said.

During a search of Martell’s residence, police recovered a black puffer jacket, a black fedora and brown boots similar to those worn by a suspect caught on an apartment complex security camera in the Sept. 14 attack, Johansson said.