Video of the event, which took place in Las Vegas on Wednesday, in which a vape shop owner stabbed a suspected robbery to death, quickly went viral on the internet.
Jonathan Nguyen, the 22-year-old owner of the Smokestrom Smoke Shop at the Sahara Avenue Suite in Las Vegas, can be seen conversing with the two people believed to be robbers in the shop.
After the conflict escalated, Nguyen was seen stabbing the person with a long blade. Las Vegas authorities quickly responded to reports of the robbery soon after they were made. The investigation into the incident is still ongoing.
Details of the stabber at the Vape Store in Las Vegas
According to TMZ, Jonathan Nguyen first became suspicious when two men wearing ski masks entered his store at 3:25 p.m. After asking them to leave, one of them grabbed a tip jar, but he didn’t acknowledge it when it was presented to him.
After reports that the men were crossing the counter to steal more, Nguyen began his attack by grabbing one of the suspects and stabbing him multiple times, totaling at least seven stabs. He later told authorities he was forced to do so in the name of self-defense.
It later emerged, according to Las Vegas authorities, that the suspected robber who was stabbed in the incident was only 17 at the time of the crime.
Violent crime in Las Vegas
According to the Nevada Independent, many regions of Nevada have seen an overall decrease in crime, while other regions have seen increases in homicides, muggings, and robberies since 2021. The stabbing that took place at a Las Vegas vape shop is just one in a series of crimes witnessed by the state.
Although the Covid-19 lockdown helped reduce the state’s overall crime rate in 2020, violent crime has actually increased in many regions of the state since then.
According to Ernesto Lopez, a research specialist with the Criminal Justice Council, such shifts could happen for a variety of reasons. When asked about the difficulty of finding answers to social phenomena, he explained in an interview with the Nevada Independent that the process is quite complicated.
An increase in crime rates, on the other hand, can indicate an improvement in the general legal and regulatory situation. This may be the case if it indicates that local residents are more willing to report incidents to the authorities, which would be a positive sign of law and order.