Julius Trotter is pictured in a mugshot from a previous arrest. — Photo by Las Vegas PD |
LAS VEGAS — A man was arrested Thursday in California in connection with the fatal stabbing of two Vietnamese tourists in Las Vegas.
Julius Trotter, 31, was arrested after a car chase in Chino, California, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in an email. The arrest came a day after police in Las Vegas said they were seeking a man in his late 20s with a tattoo just below the neckline.
According to AP, police have characterised the killings of the two Vietnamese tourists - Nghĩa Bội Sang, a 39-year-old woman and Nguyên Lê Bá Khương, a 30-year-old man - as a robbery-murder. Sang and Khương were part of a tour group of Triều Hảo Tourism Company and were director and employee of the company, respectively. They were stabbed to death on June 1 at the Circus Circus Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
Police said the tour group arrived May 31 in Las Vegas from Los Angeles.
Police were summoned the following day after hotel security went to the room at the request of tour members who were worried when the two didn’t show up for a trip to the Grand Canyon.
Police Lt. Ray Spencer said the attack probably happened around the time someone reported hearing arguing in a room on the 21st floor of the hotel.
Elevator security video showed a man going to the top floor of the hotel just after 4am and again about 45 minutes later wearing a backpack that police said belonged to Khương.
Trotter was sentenced to five years of probation in Las Vegas last year after pleading guilty to felony resisting a police officer with a weapon, in a case where a felony reckless driving charge was dismissed, AP reported. — VNS