Former professional wrestler Dan Rodimer, Republican candidate for Nevada’s 3th Congressional District, speaks before a rally with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence at the Boulder City Municipal Airport Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020.
Published Wednesday, March 6, 2024 | 1:32 p.m.
Updated Wednesday, March 6, 2024 | 6:57 p.m.
Former Nevada congressional candidate Daniel Rodimer has been identified as the suspect in a death last year on the Las Vegas Strip that was originally reported to be the result of an accident, according to Metro Police.
An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for Rodimer, 45, on a count of open murder, police said. It was reported that he turned himself in to authorities Wednesday evening.
Rodimer's Las Vegas lawyers, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press that Rodimer was “voluntarily surrendering to authorities and will post a court ordered bail.”
“He intends on vigorously contesting the allegations and asks that the presumption of innocence guaranteed all Americans be respected,” they said.
In November, authorities were made aware of a suspicious death stemming from an Oct. 29 incident in the 3000 block of Las Vegas Boulevard South, police said.
Medics responded to a call of a man, later identified as 47-year-old Christopher Tapp, suffering from injuries as a result of a purported accident, police said.
Tapp was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Through the course of a suspicious death investigation, detectives learned Tapp was in an altercation inside a room at a resort before he was found and transported to the hospital, police said.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office has since ruled Tapp’s death a homicide from blunt force trauma to the head, police said.
Rodimer, a former professional wrestler, attempted to win a seat in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District in 2020. The Republican was defeated by U.S. Rep Susie Lee, D-Nev. He had previously lost a race for the Nevada Senate.
This isn’t the first time Rodimer has faced legal troubles.
Florida court records and sheriff’s office documents detail three incidents from 2010 through 2013 in which Rodimer was accused of punching or throwing someone to the ground in disputes at nightclubs and restaurants, the Associated Press reported in 2019.
The 6-foot-7 Rodimer, who was known as Dan Rodman when he was with World Wrestling Entertainment, was “ready to get in the ring for us,” his U.S. House campaign touted.
After losing in Nevada, Rodimer unsuccessfully tried to win a vacant U.S. House seat in Texas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
