LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A white man accused of threatening to kill Black people in a mass shooting, and who allegedly kept a goat head in a Las Vegas hotel room freezer, was arrested by federal authorities and is awaiting trial in jail, documents said.
Hunter Holman, 27, faces several hate-related charges in Clark County for incidents in 2022 and 2023, documents said. On the federal level, prosecutors charged Holman with transmission of a threat to injure, records showed.
The U.S. Marshal Service took Holman into custody on March 21, records showed. He remained in federal custody as of Monday pending trial. It was unclear if marshals arrested Holman in Las Vegas or Arkansas.
“The government sought detention based on danger to the community and offered witness testimony about the evidence for the underlying charges,” a federal judge wrote in court documents. “The court is concerned about the violent nature of Mr. Holman’s frequent and recent threats to certain groups, including black individuals and members of the LGBTQ community. Additionally, even more concerning to the Court is the allegation that Mr. Holman has actually acted on those threats by attempting to run over a black family and then getting into a physical altercation.”
This February, authorities in Arkansas notified Las Vegas Metro police about Holman allegedly threatening Black people with an AR-15 at a fitness center in Little Rock, documents said.
Also in February, detectives believe Holman called a Las Vegas hotel, threatening to kill a person with his rifle, police said.
Investigators found a second hotel where Holman reportedly stayed in the Las Vegas area, adding an employee there told Homan left a goat head in the freezer with an “extensive collection of knives,” police said. The employee also said Holman “invited [the employee] to join his group, stating he is the king of the KKK.”
On July 9, 2022, Metro police responded to a reported stabbing near the Marriot Grand Chateaux on East Harmon Avenue near the Las Vegas Strip. A witness said he saw a man, later identified as Holman, driving a car on Harmon Avenue and yelling “racial slurs to a group of Black people” that was walking on the sidewalk, officers said.
A man then stabbed Holman to protect his family from him, documents said.
For that incident, police arrested Holman on charges of assault with the use of a deadly weapon motivated by bias or hatred toward victim [sic], and child abuse or neglect, records showed.
In June 2022, Holman allegedly made threats to a former Las Vegas-area employer, using a racial slur and threats of death, documents said.
Holman was released from custody in Las Vegas for his Clark County charges, records showed.
A preliminary hearing for the July 9 incident was scheduled for May. A warrant was issued for Holman’s arrest in the 2023 case. It was unclear what would happen to the Clark County cases since Holman was in federal custody.
