Police arrest suspect, hunt another in player’s beating

Las Vegas police have arrested one man and were searching for another in last week's beating and robbery of Oakland Raiders receiver Javon Walker.

Arfat Abod Fadel, 30, was being held at the Clark County Detention Center without bail on charges including kidnapping, robbery and battery with substantial bodily harm.

Investigators suspect Fadel and another man brutally beat the 29-year-old Walker after he climbed into Fadel's black Range Rover sport utility vehicle after partying in Las Vegas the night of June 15.

Walker was unconscious and bleeding when he was found the next morning lying in the street on Koval Lane behind the east side of the Strip.

"He got into the vehicle on his own, and he assumed these people were friendly and responsible, and they were not," robbery Lt. Clint Nichols said Tuesday at a news conference.

Walker, who had been partying since about 9 p.m. that night, left a group of associates and joined Fadel for unknown reasons, Nichols said.

"Mr. Walker was in town to have a good time, as many of our visitors to Las Vegas do," Nichols said. "As he will readily admit, he probably had a little too much to drink, and he did not pick up on the clues that Mr. Fadel was someone he probably should not have been with."

Walker was beaten and robbed of about $3,000 in cash and $100,000 in jewelry.

Shortly after the beating, the Web site www.thedirty.com posted a quote attributed to Walker in which the football player said he was jumped at his room in the Bellagio and knocked unconscious.

Nichols said that story was unfounded.

"That story did not come from Mr. Walker. That much we're sure of," he said.

Detectives did not identify the second man they suspect was involved in the attack.

Fadel, who has ties to California, New York, Nevada and Michigan, has a criminal record, Nichols said.

Fadel has a local arrest record involving mostly petty crimes, including a handful of trespassing cases.

Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to malicious destruction of property after throwing a boulder through a windshield in the Hard Rock Hotel parking lot.

The car was rented by a woman Fadel had a disagreement with, according to court records.

Fadel was sentenced to six months of probation.

He has a kidnapping and domestic violence case pending in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.