Suspect in fatal Las Vegas Strip shooting told police he feared for his safety
The transient man accused of fatally shooting a bus passenger Saturday on the Strip told Las Vegas police he wanted only to scare a large man who sat next to him, arrest records show.
Roland Bueno Cardenas, 55, of Las Vegas faces charges of open murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, burglary while in possession of a firearm and discharging a gun within a vehicle. Police initially identified him as Rolando Cardenas.
According to the suspect’s arrest report, a large man sat next to Cardenas in the back of the bus, making him fear for his safety. He told police he heard the man threaten him.
Gary Breitling, 57, of Sidney, Montana, was fatally shot while getting off the bus in front of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. He was sitting toward the front of the bus with his wife.
Another man who had been sitting near the stairwell, listening to music, also was wounded in the shooting. He is expected to survive.
Cardenas told police he thought he was firing into the back of a seat. The rounds went through the wall surrounding the stairwell and struck the men getting off.
The suspect was arrested after an hourslong standoff that began about 11 a.m. Saturday.
Police said Cardenas remained inside after the shooting, prompting officers to treat the scene as a barricade situation. The Metropolitan Police Department called in its crisis negotiators and SWAT team to help.
During the standoff, SWAT officers sent a robot onto the bus. The suspect threw it out the window, and Cardenas later told police he thought it was a bomb.
The suspect also fired two rounds at a SWAT camera that had been placed on the front of the bus, the report shows.
After several hours, the man threw his gun out the window and surrendered to police peacefully.
Cardenas told police he “felt bad about what happened and reiterated that all he wanted to do was scare the large male,” records show.
Police recovered surveillance footage from the bus that depicts the shooting. The footage has not been made public.
Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.
