Anna Westby was working as a showgirl on Las Vegas Boulevard last week when the stabbing on the strip happened. She was one of the victims who was injured. From her hospital bed, Westby told abc7.com of what she saw that horrific morning. Westby said the suspect, now known as Yoni Barrios, approached her and three others asking for a photo. Before she even had time to react, he pulled out the knife and launched at them.
Westby fought back tears as she remembers what happened next. She said Barrios stabbed her friend Maris in the heart first. Maris Mareen DiGiovanni is one of the two victims who did not survive the massacre. Westby then recalls that Barrios chased another friend, whom she referred to as Victoria, and stabbed her in the back. Victoria Caytano was released from the hospital on Friday after being treated for her stab wound.
Westby was also stabbed in the back. But she still tried to help one of the other victims by applying pressure to wound. Westby was still being treated for a punctured lung when she provided her statement of the ordeal.
More details about the suspect’s motive have been provided by abc7.com. According to the report, Barrios was angry about being laughed at by the showgirls. After stabbing them, he ran down the strip looking for more people to attack in effort to get his anger out.
This might have even been residual anger about something completely unrelated. Allegedly Barrios came to Vegas from Los Angeles two days earlier to move in with a friend. When that friend refused to let Barrios stay, he packed his things and headed to the strip via bus. The report also stated that Barrios even apologized to one of the victim’s before he was stabbed, and that Barrios hoped the police would shoot him (abc7.com).
Barrios is due back in court tomorrow to face two counts of murder.
–Wendy Rush, 96.3KKLZ Las Vegas
Follow us! Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.