LAS VEGAS (AP) — A criminal defendant is being charged in Las Vegas with using a hammer to try to kill a mannequin that police positioned to resemble a sleeping homeless person in an area where two men had been bludgeoned to death just weeks before.
The unusual charge of attempted murder, but of a human decoy, was lodged Tuesday against Shane Allen Schindler at a hearing in which a justice of the peace ordered Schindler to undergo a mental competency evaluation.
The 30-year-old Schindler hasn't been charged in the earlier attacks. He told police following his arrest early Feb. 22 that he knew it was a mannequin he was attacking.
Schindler's court-appointed lawyer declined Tuesday to comment.
Police say surveillance video shows Schindler creep up and hit the mannequin in the head, using two-handed swings of the 4-pound hammer.
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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com
