Las Vegas police: Man fatally stabbed mother’s longtime friend

A man fatally stabbed his mother’s longtime friend during a drunken fight inside a central Las Vegas Valley apartment on Saturday, according to his arrest report.

The Metropolitan Police Department identified the suspect as 39-year-old Christian Bryant of Las Vegas and took him into custody on a charge of open murder. The victim, 54-year-old Kyle Hughes, had been a friend of Bryant’s mother, Robin Bryant-Rooks, for seven years.

The fight broke out inside a studio apartment in the 2400 block of Clifford Avenue, near Eastern Avenue and Charleston Boulevard. According to a witness statement given to police by Bryant-Rooks, the two men “tussled” before Hughes collapsed to the floor.

Police said that after the stabbing Bryant-Rooks left the apartment for nearly 20 minutes before calling authorities. When officers arrived around 3:50 a.m., they found Hughes with multiple stab wounds to his chest, neck, hand, and eye. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Bryant initially left the apartment but later returned to check on his mother, who was present during the stabbing and remained on scene, police said.

At the time of his arrest, Bryant said he had acted in self-defense.

Police noted that Bryant was carrying two backpacks filled with clothing and toiletry items, suggesting he had planned to flee. The report said they also photographed several minor injuries on Bryant, including a “small, bloody abrasion” on the left side of his chest, a contusion on his right knuckles, and a stab wound to his back.

Inside the apartment, investigators observed that Hughes’s clothing had multiple bleach stains, and bleach seemed to have been poured on his bare chest. Officers also found a large kitchen knife with a black handle, a smaller silver knife, and a trash can holding nine empty alcohol bottles.

Bryant told detectives he had been cleaning the living room with bleach earlier because Hughes spilled alcohol. He insisted that he acted in self-defense during the fight, which his mother witnessed but did not intervene in.

“After finding out he was being arrested for murder, Christian claimed self-defense. Christian stated that he was stabbed in the back three times by Kyle before ultimately stabbing Kyle in self-defense,” investigators wrote in the report. “While Christian did have injuries, they were not consistent with being stabbed in the back three times by a large butcher-style knife.”

Police said Bryant-Rooks provided inconsistent stories about what led up to the stabbing. When asked about the bleach, she told investigators it could be used to “get rid of evidence.”

“She’d learned that from watching the First 48 hours television show,” police said in the report. “Robin claimed she was not trying to protect her son. Robin elaborated further that she didn’t think Kyle deserved to be stabbed based on the fight she saw transpire between Kyle and Christian inside the apartment.”

The report does not indicate that Bryant-Rooks was arrested. Bryant is due in court on Sept. 24.

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.