{"id":153580,"date":"2020-10-28T09:08:17","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T16:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=153580"},"modified":"2020-10-28T11:59:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T18:59:13","slug":"las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Cyclist Killed by Senseless Prank Was Longtime Boyd Employee"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cyclist was killed after she was hit by a man leaning out of a minivan window of a minivan. The cyclist was a longtime Boyd Gaming<\/a> employee who worked as a front-desk manager at the Cannery Casino<\/a>, The Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle
Rodrigo Cruz was speeding through the bicycle lane in his minivan when Michelle Wiseman was struck. He has been charged with murder. (Image: LVMPD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Michelle \u201cShelli\u201d Weissman, 56, died after she was knocked from her bicycle by 20-year-old Giovanni Medina Barajas. Barajas had draped his body out of the passenger window of a speeding burgundy Toyota Sienna.<\/p>\n

Medina Barajas hit Weissman deliberately as he passed, knocking her off her bike, apparently as a callous prank.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assailant Also Killed<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Police said Weissman died at the scene from multiple blunt force injuries after witnesses tried to administer CPR. Her death was ruled as a homicide. Weissman was wearing a helmet.<\/p>\n

The attack happened at Hollywood Boulevard near Sahara Avenue at around 7:30 am on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

Medina Barajas of Las Vegas was also killed after the momentum of hitting Weissman caused him to fall from out of the window and skid about 150 feet across the street. He suffered a fatal injury when he hit his head on a streetlight. His death was ruled an accident.<\/p>\n

Witnesses said Medina Barajas had attempted to hit a couple on the sidewalk moments earlier but had missed his target.<\/p>\n

The driver fled the scene. He was later named as 22-year-old Rodrigo Cruz and was arrested on Monday and charged with murder and violation of parole.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cruz was jailed in 2016 after beating and robbing two women in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Speeding in Cycle Lane<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to the arrest report, Cruz initially denied being the driver but later admitted he was traveling at around 50 or 60 MPH when Weissman was struck.<\/p>\n

He never went back to check on (Medina Barajas) because he was scared since he was on parole and didn\u2019t think Gio was hurt,\u201d the report said. \u201cRodrigo stated he wasn\u2019t intentionally driving in a manner to allow Gio to make contact with any pedestrians or the bicyclist.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But police said Cruz would have to have been driving in the bicycle lane for Medina Barajas to make contact with the victim, which would appear to contradict his statement.<\/p>\n

Boyd Gaming issued a statement that employees were grieving over Weissman\u2019s death and that she will be remembered for her kindness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are deeply saddened by the tragic and senseless loss of our team member, Shelli,\u201d the statement said. \u201cShe was well-known and well-liked by the entire Cannery team, and we will miss her. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this very difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cyclist was killed after she was hit by a man leaning out of a minivan window of a minivan. The cyclist was a longtime Boyd Gaming employee who worked as a front-desk manager at the Cannery Casino, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Michelle \u201cShelli\u201d Weissman, 56, died after she was knocked from her bicycle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":153581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCyclist Killed by Senseless Prank Was Longtime Boyd Employee<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Michelle Wiseman who worked at the Cannery Casino was killed by Rodrigo Cruz and Giovanni Medina Barajas as part of a prank.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cyclist Killed by Senseless Prank Was Longtime Boyd Employee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Michelle Wiseman who worked at the Cannery Casino was killed by Rodrigo Cruz and Giovanni Medina Barajas as part of a prank.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-28T16:08:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-28T18:59:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/cruz.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/\",\"name\":\"Cyclist Killed by Senseless Prank Was Longtime Boyd Employee\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/cruz.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-28T16:08:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-28T18:59:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Michelle Wiseman who worked at the Cannery Casino was killed by Rodrigo Cruz and Giovanni Medina Barajas as part of a prank.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-cyclist-killed-by-senseless-prank-was-longtime-boyd-employee\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/cruz.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/cruz.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Rodrigo Cruz speeding through the bicycle lane in his minivan when the Michelle Wiseman was struck. 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