7 charged in series of Las Vegas Strip attacks

The run of terror around the Strip began early on a September morning.

Seven people are facing multiple felonies in connection with a series of terrifying attacks on three tourists and one valley resident. Women would approach men under the guise of needing assistance or propositioning sex, and then a group of men would rob them at gunpoint, sometimes firing as the victims fled. The three incidents occurred over a span of about two hours.

Orlando Williams, 20, Roxanne Mir, 19, Courtnee Bernard, 20, Norman Renord Smith, 19, and Unique Berg, 18, each face 14 counts, including attempted murder, robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and conspiracy.

Smith was released on $160,000 bail, while Berg, who was 17 at the time of the attacks, is on house arrest. Williams, Mir and Bernard are being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $150,000 bail.

Diana Tatarian, 29, and Wanda Turner, 63, each face five counts, including conspiracy, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. They are charged only in connection with a robbery that started at Ellis Island Casino, less than a mile east of the Strip.

Turner is being held on $110,000 bail, and Tatarian remains behind bars on $125,000 bail.

Prosecutors expect to take the case to a preliminary hearing for six of the defendants in the coming weeks, while Tatarian's case has been sent to a Clark County district judge for arraignment.

Police reports detailed each of the Sept. 6 attacks.

In the first incident, a male tourist told police he met three women at the PBR Rock Bar and Grill inside Planet Hollywood around 2:30 a.m. He told them he was meeting friends at MGM Grand, and they told him they wanted to come along. One of the women told him she needed to stop at the Motel 6, just south of MGM, and he agreed to walk with them to the motel.

Suddenly, two men approached and the women surrounded the victim, blocking his escape. One of the men pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and pressed it against the victim's head, while the women rummaged through his pockets. They took his wallet, $400 cash and an iPhone. As the victim fled, he heard a gunshot, but he was not struck.

About an hour later, two men gambling at the Ellis Island Casino were approached by two women, and they arranged to have sex for money. But when the men changed their minds, the women became "infuriated" and "verbally aggressive" toward the men, who started to walk back to the Tuscany Hotel.

The women followed and pulled out a gun, demanding that the men put their hands behind their heads, police said. Moments later, two men pulled up in a white Toyota, ordered the men to their knees and pointed a gun at the back of their heads.

"Just kill them," one of the men said. "Just kill them."

The victims handed over $6,400 in cash, two cellphones, rental car keys and other personal property.

Around 4 a.m., a man walked into an Aria parking garage elevator, headed to his car alone. Two women and another man followed him inside. The women told the victim they were being harassed and asked if he would walk them to their vehicle. He found them suspicious and declined. After he stepped out on the fourth floor, the group of three followed him to his car and approached the driver's side door as he climbed inside.

After he rolled down his window and tried to pull away, one of the women pulled out a firearm, stealing his wallet and cellphone. He sped away and heard a gunshot hit his car. Surveillance video captured the entire attack and showed the suspects fleeing in a 1994 white four-door Toyota Camry, which police tied to Williams.

Police arrested Mir later that day with a Taurus .38 Special revolver tucked in her waist. Williams and Smith were arrested not long after, and in an apartment where they were staying, police found items that belonged to the victims.

Mir told police she bought the gun for protection after being dragged by a vehicle at Aria, though she later admitted to robberies at Motel 6 and Aria. Smith admitted to pointing a gun at the victim's head in the Motel 6 complex, according to police.

Defense attorneys for two of the suspects declined to comment, and others could not be reached.

Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker