Suspect arrested within hour of stabbing death of a man near UNLV

A suspect was in custody Wednesday in the stabbing death of a man whose body was found beside a knife on a sidewalk off South Maryland Parkway near UNLV.

Officers were called at 8:58 a.m. to East Katie Avenue and Maryland and arrived a minute later to find the man on the ground and noticed he had been stabbed, Metropolitan Police Department Homicide Lt. Jason Johansson said at a news conference at the scene.

The man was pronounced dead soon afterward, Johansson said.

Police recovered a knife at the scene close to the victim’s body, he said.

Additional patrol officers pursued a suspect headed south toward Flamingo Road and apprehended the person, who was not immediately identified, at Flamingo and Maryland at about 10 a.m., he said.

Homicide detectives then took over the probe into the death, he said.

“At this point, we don’t know the preliminary motive that led up to the stabbing,” Johansson said.

Police were in the area talking to residents in an effort to locate potential witnesses, he said.

Shortly after 11 a.m., officers could be seen inside an area, cordoned off by police tape, examining part of the sidewalk on the south side of Katie beside the border wall of an apartment complex about half a block west of Maryland.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter. Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.