Arnoldo Lozano-Sanchez, 78, is being accused of opening fire with a gun to three of his tenants in a small house near downtown Las Vegas
A landlord accused of shooting three tenants and killing two of them during an argument over unpaid rent told a witness that 'he didn´t want to go through the eviction process,' a prosecutor said today.
Arnoldo Lozano-Sanchez, 78, allegedly slayed two women and wounded a man by shooting him nine times at his Las Vegas home.
Lozano-Sanchez was arrested and ordered held without bail pending his arraignment on murder and attempted murder charges.
He had 'made statements about the victims not paying rent and that he was certainly upset about it' but he wanted to handle it 'his way,' Chief Deputy District Attorney Tim Fattig told a judge.
Police arrived at Lozano-Sanchez's small home early Tuesday, to find one woman dead outside, the wounded man stumbling out the front door and another woman dead in a bedroom.
The unnamed victim who remained alive was hospitalized in critical condition but is expected to survive, police said.
Las Vegas police remove crime scene tape in front of the where authorities say Lozano-Sanchez argued with three tenants over unpaid rent before shooting them early Tuesday, August 10
The shooting, apparently involving a landlord-tenant dispute, left two renters dead, one critically wounded with nine gunshot wounds and their landlord in custody as the suspect
Lozano-Sanchez refused to speak with police after his arrest.
A police report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal said he told a witness, Adria Ortega, several days ago that he was angry about his tenants not paying rent.
'Ortega suggested Lozano go to court to evict the people living inside his home. Lozano Sanchez told the witness he would `handle it his way,´' the report said.
Fattig revealed that another tenant, a man identified in the police report as Carlos Lopez, was in the house during the shooting but was not shot.
Lopez told police that he saw Lozano-Sanchez go into a bedroom where a woman pleaded for her life, multiple gunshots were fired and the wounded man ran out.
'The surviving roommate heard and saw the defendant enter into another bedroom in the house, and he heard cries for help from the occupants and thereafter heard the defendant shoot them,' Fattig told the judge. 'He also saw the defendant exit that bedroom, smiling.'
Lozano Sanchez was advised to take the tenants to court but reportedly said that he would 'handle it his way' instead
The unnamed victims were in their 50's. a fourth tenant was in the home at the moment of the attack but was not injured
The names of the victims, all in their 50s, have not been released.
Sarah Hawkins, a deputy public defender representing Lozano-Sanchez, protested that reading a police arrest statement in court did not amount to evidence.
She lost a bid to have him freed on $10,000 bail and house arrest.
Lozano-Sanchez allegedly asked a neighbor to help him dispose of the gun, but police found it in a nearby bush.
Police say they had no immediate information linking the rent dispute with a nationwide eviction moratorium that expired last week but was reinstated for areas with high transmission of COVID-19, including Nevada.
The modified ban from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention faces legal challenges and lasts until Oct 3.
