Man killed in hostage standoff had assaulted another woman, police say

A man killed by police this month after holding a woman hostage and sexually assaulting her had attacked another woman less than a week earlier, Las Vegas police said Monday.

Blood evidence linked Michael Dean Chevalier, 48, to both crimes, said Lt. Robert DuVall, head of the Sexual Assault Detail.

The first sexual assault occurred in the northwest valley in the early hours of March 30. Chevalier entered a townhouse near Durango Drive and Washington Avenue about 2:30 a.m. and tied up a woman inside, DuVall said.

When he untied the woman, she fought back and caused him to bleed in the home, he said.

Detectives used that blood to identify Chevalier as the attacker.

"Our evidence is so strong that we're closing that case," DuVall said.

Police were investigating the possibility that Chevalier entered the townhouse through an unlocked door, he said.

Police spokesman Marcus Martin said Chevalier might have been stalking his first victim.

"There's evidence he was watching her," he said.

Four days later, Chevalier held a woman hostage and sexually assaulted her in her apartment during a 12-hour standoff with police.

Chevalier randomly entered the woman's apartment at the Sedona Hills complex on Charleston Boulevard near Fremont Street the afternoon of April 3, police said.

Officers were negotiating with Chevalier to surrender when he fired several shots at a sedan entering a parking lot, which he might have thought was driven by an undercover officer, police said.

SWAT officers were called to the scene, and the standoff ended at 4:30 a.m. the next day.

When SWAT officers entered the woman's apartment, Chevalier fired at them. One officer responded with a single shot, killing him.

Police have not said how Chevalier entered the woman's apartment, but Rhonda Foster, a resident in the apartment complex, told the Review-Journal that Chevalier is thought to have entered through an unlocked front door.

Foster said she spoke to a maintenance man, who told her police broke through several walls in nearby apartments to enter the woman's apartment. The account was confirmed by Las Vegas police.

The second-story apartment where the standoff occurred had only one stairwell that led to its front door.

SWAT Sgt. Mike Quick, 43, and patrol officer Aaron Perez, 35, have been placed on paid administrative leave since the shooting. Perez was not involved in the SWAT raid that ended the standoff.

Chevalier was convicted of manslaughter in May 1983 in Genesee County, Mich., according to public records.

DuVall said that he couldn't elaborate on the sexual assault during the hostage situation because of the internal investigation into the officer-involved shooting but that the two cases have "striking similarities."

Not much is known about Chevalier and his time in Southern Nevada, he said. Police suspect he might have been living in his car.

DuVall said police are unsure whether Chevalier assaulted anybody else in Las Vegas, and he urged people to call police if they suspect Chevalier committed other crimes.

Anyone with information about Chevalier can contact the Metropolitan Police Department's Sexual Assault Detail at 828-3421 or leave anonymous tips with Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or www.crimestoppersofnv.com.

Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@review
journal.com or 702-383-4638.