Nevada authorities investigating Las Vegas Strip sidewalk rampage

By Alexia Shurmur
LAS VEGAS, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Nevada authorities will try
piecing together on Tuesday a clearer picture of a homeless
Oregon woman accused of killing one woman and injuring at least
35 pedestrians when she plowed her car into crowds on a Las
Vegas Strip sidewalk on Sunday.
Lakeisha Holloway, 24, intentionally drove her 1996
Oldsmobile into pedestrians on the crowded walkway as bystanders
tried to open the car door in a futile attempt to stop her, Las
Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Joe Lombardo said.
Holloway, who was living in her sedan with her toddler,
surrendered to officers a short distance from the scene,
Lombardo told a news conference on Monday.
U.S. law enforcement has been on heightened alert since 14
people died in a Dec. 2 shooting massacre in San Bernardino,
California, by a married couple inspired by Islamist militants.
Lombardo said Holloway made a statement to police explaining
her motive. He declined to relate what she said, other than that
the incident did not appear to be a militant attack.
Holloway told detectives she had a stressful time on Sunday,
trying to rest and sleep inside her vehicle, but that she was
told to move by security guards at the properties where she
stopped, an arrest report said.
Holloway's license was suspended by the Oregon DMV in 2012
and again by (Portland's) Multnomah County in 2013 and had not
been reinstated, an Oregon Department of Transportation
spokeswoman said on Monday.
Clark County District Attorney Steven Wolfson said his
office planned to bring charges of murder with use of a deadly
weapon and other counts against Holloway, who was held without
bail.
Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, died from
injuries after she was struck, the Clark County Coroner-Medical
Examiner's office said. Other victims included visitors from
Colorado, Florida, Mexico and Quebec, Canada.
Holloway, who is from Oregon, had been living in her car in
Las Vegas for about a week with her three-year-old daughter,
Lombardo said.
The child, who was in the car when Holloway drove into the
pedestrians, was uninjured and is in protective custody,
Lombardo said.
In 2012, Holloway received an award from a Portland
career-mentoring nonprofit for being a role model for high
school students, said The Skanner, a community website in the
Pacific Northwest.
In the story, Holloway described her mother as having
"turned to alcohol, leaving Lakeisha to fend for herself".
Holloway was homeless during her freshman year in high school,
but had since graduated, the story said.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Eric M. Johnson, Brendan O'Brien;
Editing by Gareth Jones)