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Cellphone video used to ID North Las Vegas stabbing suspect

The suspect in the December killing of a 21-year-old man was identified after someone came forward with video of the fatal stabbing, North Las Vegas police documents show.

Omar Cedano was stabbed Dec. 28 at a house party in the 3500 block of Stanley Avenue, near North Pecos Road and East Owens Avenue. North Las Vegas Police Department detectives and SWAT officers arrested 27-year-old Sergio Arevalo in connection with the stabbing on Thursday, police said.

Detectives identified Arevalo as a suspect after seeing cellphone video of the fight that led to the stabbing, according to Arevalo’s arrest report. The video showed Arevalo and two others fighting Cedano, the report said.

One frame from the video showed Arevalo’s arm “in contact” with Cedano’s left side, one of the places he was stabbed. According to the report, “it is clear from the video” that the other two people did not stab Cedano.

Cedano died at University Medical Center from stab wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide, the Clark County coroner’s office has said.

More than 50 people attended the party, but few waited for police to arrive after the stabbing was reported, police have said.

Eliver Garcia, a sister-in-law of Cedano, said in an interview last month that she had spoken with a detective and people who attended the party. She said the house was hosting a punk rock show, but she wasn’t sure how Cedano got involved in the scuffle, which she said began inside and ended outside.

When police interviewed Cedano’s friends, “all confirmed that there was a fight, but no one saw who stabbed him,” the report said. It was unclear how the fight started.

Detectives determined that after Cedano was stabbed, Arevalo went to an apartment and washed the knife off, which “angered” the man who lived at the apartment. That man, whose name was redacted from the report, confirmed to police that Arevalo washed a knife in his sink and that he was upset that Arevalo came to his home because he “suspected that Arevalo had done the stabbing.”

After Arevalo’s arrest, he admitted to police he stabbed Cedano but “justified it” because he said Cedano was reaching for a gun.

The report said the video showed no evidence that Cedano was reaching for a gun, and no witnesses said they saw guns at the party. Arevalo also told police he washed a knife off after the party at the apartment.

Arevalo was booked into the Las Vegas Detention Center and transferred to the Clark County Detention Center, where he remained Tuesday on $500,000 bail, jail records show. He faces a charge of murder with a deadly weapon.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.

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