Las Vegas strip ‘murderer’ who mowed down dozens with her car tells family of ‘remorse’ and pleads to see the three-year-old daughter who was with her during rampage

Lakeisha Holloway

Murder suspect Lakeisha Holloway, accused of mowing down revelers with her car, is ‘really remorseful’ over the incident which left one woman dead and 37 injured.

The single mother has told her family that she is sorry for the incident and desperate to see her three-year-old daughter who remains in the care of family protection officials.

The child’s father has remained in Dallas, Texas, and failed to come forward and take his daughter, said prosecution sources.

She may now be handed over to foster carers after being driven by her mother in her 1996 Oldsmobile sedan along the Vegas strip as she carried out the horrifying attack, said a source.

Holloway, 24, of Portland, Oregon, has been charged with murdering mother-of-three Jessica Valenzuela with a deadly weapon, child abuse or neglect, and failing to stop at an accident involving death or injury.

More charges are likely to be pressed tomorrow when she makes a court appearance to be remanded in Clark County jail over Christmas.

She is set to be face additional charges of multiple counts of attempted murder.

Clark County District Attorney Steven Wolfson told Daily Mail Online: ‘For some reason this lady decided to run her car to the right and mow over scores of people.

‘This was an act that took 30 to 60 seconds. It is inexplicable and indefensible.

‘What would motivate anybody to do this. I don’t know the answer to that question.

‘She said she was stressed out, living out of her car and various casino properties were telling her to leave.

She herself admitted she was stressed out and didn’t want to be there.

‘But I have a stressful life, many Americans have very stressful lives. But we deal with stress every day and we manage it.

I don’t know if that is what happened to this lady.

‘Our laws and social conscience requires us to be responsible and to respect human life, and property.
‘This lady abandoned that and threw it all down the toilet.’

He said there was no clear motivation for the mowing down of people. But the car had veered right onto the sidewalk and then back onto the road before going back onto the sidewalk outside Planet Hollywood.

He said the inquiry was still going on into her background, but she had no criminal history or record. ‘What caused her to do this, we just don’t know. But sometimes dangerous people do dangerous things.’

After the carnage, she drove to the Tuscan HOTEL about a mile away and told security guards to call police. Her lawyer Scott Coffee told Daily Mail Online:’ It is compelling that she asked for the police to be called.’

Holloway’s cousin, LaShay Hardaway wrote on Facebook that the suspect was wrongly being portrayed as ‘a villain’. She told The Oregonian newspaper that Holloway did not drink or do drugs and probably fell asleep at the wheel because she worked a lot and slept little.

Holloway’s cousin said she was not homeless, but was considering a move from Portland to Las Vegas. She had recently been a student at Portland Community College.

The young mother had appeared to overcome the odds after her alcoholic mother threw her out when she was a freshman in high school to become the first in her family to graduate high school.


Just three years ago, Holloway, a graduate of an alternative high school, had been honored with a CARE Role Model award by the Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, for overcoming adversity.

According to its website, the non-profit organization helps ‘alienated at-risk youth affected by poverty, instability and homelessness’ by providing them with education and job training.

In a 2012 video by the POIC, Holloway said her alcoholic mother struggled to raise her and her sister and left her to fend for herself when she was younger.

She thanks the POIC for helping her turn her life around – taking her from a ‘scared little girl’ on the streets to ‘living the grand life’ with a federal government job at the age of 21.

Holloway said she had grown up familiar with alcoholism, drug addiction and living on a low income, but wanted more – and managed to become the first in her family to graduate high school.

But from nearly failing all of her classes in her freshman year, she ended up graduating with a 3.4GPA and $17,000 in scholarships. Her future looked promising.

Soircee: Daily Mail