18-year-old woman accused of killing man in Las Vegas hotel room

Fox 5 Vegas
 
18-year-old woman accused of killing man in Las Vegas hotel room
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LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - An 18-year-old woman is accused of killing a man she met on Bumble in a Las Vegas Strip hotel room, according to police.

Emma Kusak, 18, faces a murder charge after the shooting on June 29 at the Luxor Hotel & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Kusak was booked into Clark County Detention Center on July 26, her 18th birthday, records show.

According to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, dispatch received a call from Kusak saying she shot and killed someone inside the Luxor; she reportedly said it happened on the 12th floor but that she fled the scene. Responding officers found a deceased man suffering from a gunshot wound to the head in a room on the 12th floor and he was later identified as Charlie Satrustegui.

Later that day around 12:30 p.m., Kusak called police and said she was on her way to turn herself in.

“While being taken into custody, Emma made the excited utterance, ‘I didn’t mean to do it,’” the arrest report said.

During an interview with LVMPD, Kusak told police that she had met the victim on Bumble, a dating app, about two months prior. However, she said she wasn’t interested in anything romantic, just was looking for new friends. The two periodically texted over the two months before the victim asked Kusak if she wanted to hang out, as he was visiting Las Vegas from California. Kusak agreed, and the victim picked her up and took her to Luxor, where he was staying, the arrest report said.

Kusak told police that after a night of drinking in the hotel room, they both fell asleep. At one point in the night, Kusak said the victim wanted to kick her out of the room for coughing loudly in the night.

Kusak told police that she shot the victim after he advanced at her and she thought she was going to be attacked. However, the arrest report said when detectives challenged Kusak’s story, she admitted she was being untruthful.

Kusak then said when the victim tried to kick her out of the room, she became desperate; she had no money, nowhere to go and was actively avoiding her parents and law enforcement, an arrest report said. Kusak said she took the victim’s gun with the intent to rob him. She told police the victim lunged for the gun and she shot him, the arrest report said.

“Emma said she didn’t mean to shoot him and didn’t want to shoot him, but she had nowhere to go and didn’t want to go back to jail. Emma said she impulsively shot Charlie,” the report said.

Kusak told police she took items from the victim, like his keys, wallets and multiple phones, with the intent of breaking the phones so no one would know she was involved, the arrest report said. Kusak reportedly disposed of the gun in a trashcan near Rainbow and Charleston.

Court records show Kusak was not granted bail in a July 27 hearing. Her next hearing was set for Aug. 1.