Man charged with fire bombing Las Vegas apartment
A 27-year-old man has been charged with fire bombing an occupied Las Vegas apartment and a Porsche in what police said was retaliation over an ongoing neighborhood dispute in east Las Vegas.
Brett Michael Hahn was booked at the Clark County Detention Center on June 20 on three counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, first-degree arson and possession of an explosive device.
An arrest warrant for Hahn states the charges stem from the 2017 fire bombings of both the apartment and the Porsche near Eastern and Tropicana avenues on consecutive days in February of that year.
Las Vegas police said witnesses saw two men filling up gas cans near where the Porsche was burned. A lighter and a gas can were found at the scene. The next day, someone walked up to an apartment near the intersection and threw a Molotov cocktail through the front window of the residence with three people inside. The three residents required treatment for smoke inhalation at a nearby hospital.
Police said a witness told investigators the fire was set in retaliation for a series of robberies and drug rip-offs in the neighborhood.
“(The witness) stated the man who lives in the target apartment is in jail and has wronged the people who started both fires,” police quoted the witness as saying. “(He) made statements like ‘this is over now’ and there’s not going to be any more retaliation. … This is how they do things. You mess them, they blow up your car. You mess with their family they mess with your family.”
A second potential witness told a similar story, telling police a man targeted in the fires had been “robbing people and doing too much in the neighborhood including ‘burning’ him for about half an ounce of marijuana.’” The witness claimed the person who set the fires was a young man nicknamed “Ghost” or “Solo,” police said.
“Through further investigation it was determined that ‘Solo’ or ‘Ghost’ was later identified as Brett Michael Hahn,” police said.
Police said DNA found on a lighter at the fire scene was identified at Hahn’s. When questioned, Hahn denied involvement and blamed the fires on one of the witnesses police had talked to earlier.
Hahn remained in custody at the Clark County Detention Center as of Thursday morning. A preliminary hearing in the case was scheduled for July 6 in Las Vegas Justice Court.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.
