The Las Vegas food bank where Shiloh Leutu allegedly beat a 60-year-old man who was defending his girlfriend (Google Maps).
A 60-year-old Nevada man was fatally beaten after stepping in to protect his girlfriend from two people who police say began “insulting and talking badly” to her because she did not have a cigarette to give them.
Scott Dennis was waiting in line at a Las Vegas food bank when Shiloh Leutu, 38, and another suspect approached Dennis’ girlfriend and asked her for a cigarette, according to an arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and local NBC affiliate KSNV.
The woman told the pair she did not smoke. Police say Leutu and the man with him then began harassing and mocking her. Dennis, who had stepped away from the line to smoke, noticed the confrontation and returned to stand between his girlfriend and the two men, investigators said.
Based on surveillance footage and witness accounts, Las Vegas police said Leutu and the second man attacked Dennis outside the food bank and beat him to death. Investigators allege the men continued punching and kicking Dennis as he tried to rise from the ground.
“Detectives learned that the victim and a friend were in a line waiting for a business [the food bank] … to open,” a police press release says. “A male approached the friend and started yelling at her. The victim stepped in and the male struck him in the face causing him to fall to the ground. A second male jumped in and the two continued to beat the victim until the crowd could stop them.”
Both men fled after the attack, police said. Leutu was later located and arrested on July 15, while the second suspect remained at large as of Monday.
Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Leutu was charged with open murder and battery of an older person resulting in substantial bodily harm, though the Clark County District Attorney’s Office ultimately chose not to pursue the murder charge.
Asked by the Review-Journal why the open murder charge was not pursued, the district attorney’s office said it could later amend Leutu’s charges depending on the autopsy report findings, which are not yet complete. The arrest report notes that the doctor who performed Dennis’ autopsy stated that the assault contributed to a heart attack that Dennis may have had, but the official ruling is pending additional analysis, per the Review-Journal.
Leutu allegedly told detectives that Dennis had put him and the other suspect in headlocks after Dennis hit and kicked them. Surveillance footage, however, showed that Leutu and the other man were the aggressors, according to police.
Leutu was due to appear in court Monday in Clark County.
