A man accused by police of punching and killing another man on the Las Vegas Strip over the weekend offered “no explanation” for the punch and denied making contact with the deceased, according to police documents.
Officers arrested 33-year-old Brandon Leath on Sunday and charged him with Open Murder. He’s being held at Clark County Detention Center without bail.
According to Leath’s arrest report, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detectives with the Fusion Watch Center — a collaborative effort between multiple agencies to find and prevent crime and terrorist activity — say they were watching a group of people on the pedestrian bridge between the Cromwell and Bally’s hotel-casinos shortly before 4:30 a.m.
A man, later identified as Thomas Driscoll, and a woman walked past the group. The report says that Leath made a comment to them.
Video surveillance shows Driscoll and the woman began to ride the escalator down to the bottom floor, the report says, when Leath ran down the stairs ahead of them and waited for them to descend. Police say he took his backpack off and “took a fighting stance.”
The report goes on to say Driscoll walked towards Leath, who punched him one time.
Driscoll fell to the ground on his back and did not move. He was transported to the hospital where, about an hour after the incident began, he was pronounced dead.
During an interview with detectives, Leath said he was with the group of people seen on camera and “remembered” talking to authorities after the incident, but the report says he offered “no explanation of the incident itself” and denied making contact with Driscoll.
He is due back in court on Wednesday for a 72-hour hearing.
