LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The southwest Las Vegas valley home where Las Vegas Metro police found a deceased 68-year-old woman covered in lacerations and blood Wednesday morning was frequented by officers, records showed.
28-year-old Hend Bustami is accused of killing her mother in the home before fleeing to Barstow, California. California Highway Patrol arrested Bustami there hours later, police said.
8 News Now acquired LVMPD documents that reveal officers received 12 calls for service at the Bustami address in 2022 alone.
Most of these calls, seven, were for “family disturbances,” among others for reports of a missing person, civil matters and a suicide attempt. The most recent was Wednesday morning when police said Bustami called in her own mother’s death before the phone abruptly hung up.
The 28-year-old first made headlines in late August when she was arrested inside Harry Reid International Airport for skipping out on her restaurant check, sleeping in front of a TSA checkpoint and threatening to spit on officers before claiming she was being arrested because “they [had] never seen anyone as good looking,” according to the arrest report the 8 News Now Investigators first obtained.
Neighbors confirm the constant police activity on their street this year, including Wednesday, when caution tape remained up until the late afternoon. Andres Moreno lives close to the Bustami family and said their home was the loudest on their block.
“Usually 10 o’clock or later, they would just be screaming in the backyard, or they’d be fighting. It was usually the older daughter and the mother that would get into it,” Moreno said soon after police took down caution tape surrounding a row of homes Wednesday afternoon. “Of course, shortly after screaming, police presence would be involved and things would get all, you know, get settled down. Then a week later, it’d happen again.”
The neighbor describes the scene as a “monthly or bimonthly occasion” involving the woman the neighborhood frequently encountered acting unusual. Asking for car rides from strangers, entering neighbors’ open garages, and finding her belongings scattered outside are just some examples.
“She would come outside and literally spin in her driveway, singing songs or talking to herself in her driveway, or she’d just walk up and down the street muttering to herself,” Moreno said. “I believe she had mental health issues and she did desperately need help and maybe chose not to get it. Or, you know, who am I to say, but there was obviously something going on with her.”
Bustami already had a court appearance scheduled for Thursday morning at the Regional Justice Center for the August arrest. Though it is unclear if she will be physically present in court then, LVMPD adds she will be extradited from California back to Clark County where she will face an open murder charge.
As of Wednesday, Bustami was being held in a San Bernadino County jail, according to online records.
LVMPD asks anyone with information about this incident to contact its homicide section at 702-828-3521 or homicide@lvmpd.com. People can remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or crimestoppersofnv.com.
