Man who followed children in Las Vegas beaten with a pipe, police say
A man observed following some children in a central Las Vegas neighborhood was later beaten unconscious by an assailant with a metal pipe early this weekend, police said, leaving the man on life support.
Authorities said they arrested Daniel Delaney Jones, 53, of Las Vegas, on felony counts of attempted murder and battery with use of a deadly weapon in the case.
An arrest report for Jones stated that police were called to the 2400 block of East Stewart Avenue, near Eastern Avenue, at 2:06 a.m. Sunday for a report “of a man who had been beaten with a baseball bat.”
Police arrived and found the beating victim not moving on the ground. He was taken to University Medical Center where doctors told police the man was not expected to survive.
The victim, police said, only had a Mexican identification card on him. With police unsure if the name on the identification card was his true identification, they referred to him as a “John Doe” in the arrest report.
Police said they interviewed a witness in the neighborhood who said three children had informed her that the day prior, the beating victim was observed staring at the children.
The man then tried to talk to the children and followed the children home, the witness said. There was no indication in the arrest report that the incident with the children was reported to police.
Police then examined video surveillance in the area that showed the attack. It showed the victim sitting down behind a sign along Stewart when a bicyclist, two people in a slow-moving sport utility vehicle ,and a man in a red shirt “carrying a large metal pipe” approached, police said. The victim was followed through a parking lot and an alley where he was attacked by the man with the pipe.
A police investigation ultimately identified Jones as a suspect. Police said when they took him into custody at an apartment near where the man was beaten, he confessed to attacking the man because he’d heard he’d been chasing children in the neighborhood.
“Dan proceeded to explain that he saw the victim from this incident, John Doe, chasing (the children) across the street, and he found him and hit him to teach him a lesson,” police said.
Police said they showed Jones a still photo of the assailant retrieved from the video surveillance and that Jones responded “that’s me.”
Jones was was being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center, and he is scheduled for an appearance in Las Vegas Justice Court on Wednesday.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.