11 Arrested After Unruly Crowd Disrupts Las Vegas Strip Near Bellagio; Officer Choked During Response

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2026 — What began as a street performance on the Las Vegas Strip turned into a major police operation in the early hours of Sunday morning, when an unruly crowd disrupted traffic outside a resort property near the Bellagio and refused orders to disperse. By the time it was over, police said 11 people had been arrested — and newly filed court documents revealed that an officer was placed in a chokehold during the chaos.

How the night unfolded

According to a statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, reported by Casino.org, officers responded around 12:30 a.m. Sunday to a disturbance in which a crowd had formed outside a resort property on the Strip, triggered by a performance that was disrupting traffic. “Officers contacted the crowd and attempted to take multiple individuals into custody,” the department said. “At some point, an officer was struck by an item thrown by an individual.”

As officers moved in, the situation escalated. Court filings cited by Casino.org say “multiple people” began throwing bottles and refused to leave the area when ordered to do so. Because of the size of the crowd and how the situation was developing, police dispatched units from multiple area commands to assist.

The officer and the chokehold

The most serious allegation in the incident emerged from the police report filed with the court. As Officer M. Newson tried to make an arrest, Jose Aviles of California approached him from behind and applied a chokehold, the report states.

“One of these individuals approached me from behind and applied what I recognized as a rear-naked chokehold to my neck in an attempt to choke me while I was still engaged with the original subject,” Newson wrote in the report, according to Casino.org. Another officer pulled Aviles away, but Aviles continued to resist and was eventually subdued with a Taser and arrested.

Aviles was taken to the Clark County Detention Center, where he posted bail and was released. Jail records showed that the day of the incident was Aviles’ birthday.

A heavy response on the Strip

Video posted to social media showed an extensive law-enforcement presence converging on the area, with a police helicopter hovering overhead, its spotlight trained on the ground. One witness described the scene as “crazy” and estimated that as many as 100 police vehicles were involved — an eyewitness estimate, not an official figure. A section of the Strip was temporarily cordoned off, heavily restricting vehicle and pedestrian traffic during the response.

That scale of response is consistent with the department’s own statement, which said officers from multiple area commands were dispatched. Whatever the exact number of vehicles on scene, the footage and the department’s description agree on the essentials: a large, mobile police operation in one of the busiest pedestrian corridors in America, in the middle of the night.

Where exactly it happened

Initial reports placed the disturbance outside the Bellagio. But the court filings tell a more precise story: the crowd gathered not outside Paris Las Vegas, as one earlier report had it, but closer to the entrance of Planet Hollywood, according to Casino.org’s reporting on the filings. For visitors, the distinction is small — the Bellagio and Planet Hollywood sit across the boulevard from each other on one of the Strip’s most recognizable stretches — but it matters for accuracy, and the filings are the more authoritative record.

The arrest count — and a discrepancy

The department said in its initial statement that 11 people were arrested in connection with the disturbance. But Casino.org’s follow-up, citing jail records, reports that Aviles appears to be the only individual who was formally booked in connection with the incident. That gap is worth noting, not resolving from here: “arrested” in a field statement can include detentions that never become formal bookings, while the jail record reflects only those processed into the Clark County Detention Center. The Previously news desk will update this story if the department clarifies the numbers.

Resolved peacefully, no injuries

For all the chaos in the footage, the department emphasized that the incident was resolved peacefully. No officers were injured, and authorities did not report any injuries among members of the public. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic, heavily restricted during the response, has returned to normal, though police said a significant presence remained in the area afterward as a precaution.

A statement from police early Monday — noted in Casino.org’s follow-up reporting — said the crowd had gathered to watch “a performance,” without elaborating on what the performance was. No further details were immediately released about the other arrests or the investigation, which police say remains ongoing.

A familiar pattern on this stretch of the Strip

Sunday’s incident was not the first time this part of the boulevard has seen exactly this sequence. In January, Las Vegas police arrested 11 people — the same number as Sunday — after an unruly crowd formed in the 3600 block of South Las Vegas Boulevard around 1:30 a.m., also in response to a performance that disrupted traffic. An officer was struck by a thrown item that night too, also without injury, and traffic returned to normal by 3 a.m., the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported at the time.

The parallels say something about how the Strip works at night: a street performer draws a crowd, the crowd spills off the sidewalk, traffic stops, and what starts as entertainment becomes a police operation. Both nights ended peacefully and without injuries. But the recurrence — same block, same hour, same arrest count — suggests the Strip’s nighttime crowds remain a persistent management challenge for Metro, not a one-off event.

What happens next

Aviles was released after posting bail, according to jail records cited by Casino.org. The broader investigation remains ongoing, and police have not said whether further charges or bookings will follow for the other people taken into custody. The department has not elaborated on the performance that drew the crowd, and the identities of the other arrestees have not been released. The Previously news desk will update this story as the case develops.

The incident was the second headline-making police response in the valley in three days, following the deadly shooting at Friday’s First Friday event in the Arts District — a separate incident, but one that has put a spotlight on weekend crowd safety across the city.