911 callers describe ‘gruesome’ scene, police say man ate victim’s face in killing
Las Vegas police on Tuesday released recordings of 911 calls made by two convenience store employees reporting an attack on customer, and later the “gruesome” scene that police allege involved the same suspect eating parts of a man’s face.
Colin Czech, 29, was arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a count of open murder, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
In the first call at 4:42 a.m. April 28, a 7-Eleven employee told police that a man had tackled one of his customers that morning outside the convenience store at 1100 Las Vegas Boulevard South.
“I have this dude outside,” the employee said. “He just jumped one of my customers.”
The employee said that he had broken up the attack and tried talking to the perpetrator to no avail.
“He’s been standing here all night, and he finally did put his hands on somebody,” the employee said.
The victim was inside the store and appeared to be OK, the employee told the dispatcher.
“He’s banging his head against the concrete right now,” the witness said about Czech, adding that he was pacing and appeared to be on drugs. “He’s out of it.”
The dispatcher asked the employee to not approach the alleged attacker.
“He’s on all fours like he’s a dog about to rush the store,” the employee said about the attacker. “I need somebody to come get him now.”
At 5:31 a.m., a separate employee at a nearby AM/PM store at 333 E. Charleston Blvd. called 911 to report that an unconscious man was lying outside.
“There’s a guy at the bus stop,” the worker said. “I guess he can’t breathe. He’s bleeding. He needs help.”
The dispatcher asked the witness if he was calling from a 7-Eleven.
Using expletives, the employee described what he saw next.
“Oh (expletive), oh my God, there’s a lot of blood,” he said.
He said the victim appeared dead, describing the scene as “gruesome.”
Asked if the “assailant” was nearby, the employee said he was on top of the victim and “beating his face. Though it was unclear whether the caller said “eating,” the dispatcher repeated the word “beating.”
“Please send somebody right now,” he pleaded. The dispatcher said the call was prioritized.
Police said Czech had eaten parts of the victim’s face. It wasn’t clear from his arrest report or recordings if the two attacks were against the same person.
The 29-year-old suspect is in the process of undergoing a psychological evaluation to determine whether he’s competent to stand trial, according to court records.
Police said Czech told detectives that he’d been in a fight with a “shape-shifter” and that he had “used his teeth” to eat the man’s “eyeballs and ears.”
Rambling, Czech further stated that he was homeless and hadn’t slept in five days.
The Clark County coroner’s office had not identified the victim as of Tuesday.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.