Man tied to Summerlin nail salon robbery with fire extinguisher faces 5 felonies

A man police tied to a Summerlin nail salon robbery last month, who has a history of being accused in similar crimes, is set to face a Las Vegas judge Tuesday.

According to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report, Brandon Potter, 27, was among a group of three men who entered the Rio Nails shop in the 1900 block of Village Center Circle on April 28 while spraying retardant from a “red fire extinguisher.”

Disoriented patrons and employees inside the shop had trouble seeing what was happening because “a lot of smoke was filling the air,” according to the report.

One of the men, according to the report, “grabbed” a Louis Vuitton purse with a cellphone and $300 cash inside, before the men fled the business.

Police later found “individuals standing outside the store covered in a powder with a yellowish hue,” the report said.

A nail shop employee was able to get a partial license plate number for an SUV the men allegedly fled in, according to the report, and police tracked the vehicle less than two miles from the robbery scene.

Investigators later tracked the SUV to Potter’s mother’s apartment in west Las Vegas. When contacted by police, Potter’s mother, according to the report, said, “What did he do now?”

The report also said that shortly before the nail shop robbery, a man inside an SUV with the same license plate number stepped out and approached two people sitting inside a vehicle at a nearby Costco store while “spraying a fire extinguisher at the vehicle.”

The two people in the vehicle, however, were able to thwart the possible attack by rolling up their windows, according to the report.

Potter was arrested in 2018 after a “series of bar robberies” where Potter used the “very unique” tactic of using a fire extinguisher, according to the report and court records.

Potter was on probation for felony grand larceny at the time of his April 30 arrest while he met with his parole and probation officer in Las Vegas.

Potter faces five felony charges, including robbery, robbery of an older person, attempted robbery, burglary of a business, and conspiracy to commit robbery. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit burglary.

As of Thursday, Potter remained in custody at the Clark County Detention Center. He was denied bail this month.

Potter is scheduled for a preliminary hearing before Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Rebecca Saxe on Tuesday.

As of Thursday, it was unknown if the other two suspects in the robbery at Rio Nails had been arrested.

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.