Police arrest 19-year-old man in deadly stabbing

A 19-year-old man has been arrested in the fatal stabbing of his father, police announced Tuesday.

Mason David Fritz was booked Monday on charges of open murder, robbery, kidnapping, grand larceny, domestic battery and destruction of another's property, according to Clark County Detention Center booking logs.

His arrest report includes a statement given by his mother, who told Las Vegas police Fritz was on drugs when he stabbed his father.

The report identified the father as David Fritz, who was hospitalized with a stab wound after Las Vegas police were called about 6 a.m. Monday to a home at 5348 Latigo Street, near the intersection of Eastern and Hacienda avenues, where a family member was threatening another.

David Fritz and other relatives were at the home about 5:15 a.m. Monday when Mason Fritz, who recently had moved out, jumped the wall of his parents' backyard, Mason Fritz told police.

According to the arrest report, David Fritz invited his son inside for food and water and told his wife their son was "tweaking" on Xanax. While in the kitchen, Mason Fritz picked up a steak knife, he told police.

He let the air out of one of the tires on his father's truck because he "did not want him to go to work so they could talk," according to the report.

Mason and David Fritz started arguing, and Mason Fritz's mother and 13-year-old sister locked themselves inside a bedroom and called police, the report states.

After she heard her husband's truck leave the driveway, Mason Fritz's mother went downstairs to find her husband lying in the hallway, covered with a blanket.

David Fritz was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where he died, police said.

Monday afternoon, police found David Fritz's truck unoccupied in the Wetlands Park, near Boulder Highway and Tropicana Avenue. Shortly after 4:15 p.m. Monday, Mason Fritz was found walking in the 5800 block of East Flamingo Road and was taken into custody.

During an interview with police, Fritz said he had gotten in a fight with his father and "did something bad." He had brought handcuffs to his parents' house and remembered putting them on his father, taking the truck keys from his father's pocket and locking the family cat in the truck before driving off, he told police.

Mason Fritz also had outstanding warrants for domestic battery and destruction of property, police said.

This is the 69th homicide in Metro's jurisdiction this year.

Anyone with information should contact Metro's homicide section at 702-828-3521 or homicide@lvmpd.com. To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or visit crimestoppersofnv.com.

Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @lauxkimber