Suspect in fatal van-bike crash jailed

A suspected DUI driver, who police said changed clothes after abandoning his vehicle, is facing a murder charge in a hit-and-run crash that killed a bicyclist Friday afternoon near the Strip, jail records show.

Jorge Cardenas, 58, faces additional felony charges of reckless driving resulting in death and failing to stop at the scene of a crash, according to the records.

Details of his arrest were not immediately available, although a news release from the Metropolitan Police Department sent just after 2:30 a.m. Saturday states that Cardenas was “later located and arrested.”

Las Vegas police suspect that Cardenas struck the 55-year-old bicyclist, who was in a designated bike lane near Flamingo Road and Tuscany Casino Drive, as he was fleeing from another hit-and-run crash just moments earlier near Flamingo and Las Vegas Boulevard South.

About 2:30 p.m., both the bicyclist and a 2002 Honda Odyssey van that police believe was driven by Cardenas were heading east on Flamingo when the Honda veered into the bus and bike lane to avoid traffic, hitting the bicyclist and sending his body into the roadway, police said.

Police say in the release that the Honda continued east on Flamingo and that “in an attempt to hide the vehicle,” Cardenas entered the Silver Sevens casino parking lot on Paradise Road and abandoned the van there.

“Some good Samaritans followed him and tried to detain him,” Metro traffic Capt. Nick Farese said at the scene Friday evening, but he got away. He changed clothes and was last seen running from the scene, prompting an active police search that lasted well into Friday night.

About an hour after the deadly crash, Metro released a photo of a man Farese characterized as a “person of interest.” It remained unclear Saturday whether the person in the photo is Cardenas.

Cardenas was being held Saturday without bail on the murder charge at the Clark County Detention Center.

Jorge Cardenas