Suspect in New Year’s Eve shooting on Strip found incompetent

A man accused of opening fire on New Year’s Eve from his high-rise unit near the Strip has been found incompetent to face charges.

Jon Letzkus, 45, has been charged with destruction of property and 71 counts of discharging a gun from within a structure, court records show. He was arrested on New Year’s Eve after police responded to multiple reports of gunshots just before 6 a.m. at the Signature at MGM Grand, at 145 E. Harmon Ave.

Police said there was evidence of someone shooting from the balcony of Letzkus’ unit, and that there were gunshot impacts inside the high-rise and to the unit’s windows. No one was injured in the shooting.

During a brief court hearing Friday morning, District Judge Christy Craig said that two doctors have deemed Letzkus incompetent to stand trial. She ordered him to be transported to a state psychiatric hospital for treatment to restore his competency.

“I’m perfectly competent, and I think I have the right to a trial by jury under the rules of the United States,” Letzkus told the judge during the hearing.

Craig said that he hadn’t lost his rights to a trial, but that she was “relying on the doctors’ ” findings.

When Letzkus spoke with police after his arrest, he would veer between “tangents” and “factual information” about the shooting, according to his arrest report. He also told police that he thought hotel security was trying to break into his room, and he began shooting to “get the attention of the police officers,” the report said.

He said “there were cats in suits with machine guns walking the hallways” and “people coming through the heating vents to get him,” the report alleged.

Prosecutors have said that Letzkus’ high-rise was “completely flooded” and a dog was locked in the bathroom. Damage to the room was estimated at more than $100,000.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.