Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023 | 5:01 p.m.
The suspect in the slaying of a man at a southwest valley park allegedly told Metro Police he was “feeling paranoid” before fatally stabbing a man last week, according to an arrest report.
Rochlon Hamilton, 50, was booked Friday into the Clark County Detention Center for open murder with a deadly weapon and for killing, maiming, disfiguring or poisoning an animal of another, police said.
Officers responded about 12:30 p.m. Friday to reports of a person stabbed in Charlie Frias Park, the report said. Witnesses at the scene pointed police to Hamilton, who was still at the scene and taken into custody without incident.
As Hamilton was being arrested, he allegedly said “I did it because they was messin’ with me,” the report said.
Hamilton told police he had recently been “going through some things” and feeling paranoid, as if he was being followed. He was “down on his luck” and experiencing homelessness and went to the park to “figure things out,” the report said.
Hamilton was lying down in a grassy area when a man he could not identify allegedly walked by and asked if he was dead, saying he hoped that he was and that it would be good for him. The comment pushed Hamilton “over the edge,” he told police, and so he got up and “did what he did.”
Hamilton said he blacked out, but recalled a dog attacking him, and doing what he had to in order to get the dog away from him.
Witnesses who had been with the victim told police they walked past Hamilton as he laid in the grass and “thought nothing of it.” They heard Hamilton yelling obscenities but thought maybe he was talking to himself, one witness said. Shortly after, an “unprovoked” Hamilton ran at the victim and swung a black folding knife at him.
A black folding knife was located in a garbage can near the location of Hamilton’s arrest, police claim in the report.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
A dog belonging to a member of the group became protective of the victim when he was stabbed by Hamilton, and suffered a puncture to its jaw area while trying to place itself between him and the victim, police claim in the report.
Hamilton allegedly told police what happened was unfortunate, but he had “been dealing with so much lately that he could not take anymore,” the report said.
