LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Neighbors used their cars to stop a man who they believe is connected to terrorizing a 72-year-old woman for months. They say someone set the woman’s home on fire earlier this month.
Russell McLaren was arrested Wednesday night after the woman’s roommate spotted him walking toward the home with containers of liquid. The roommate and a neighbor used their vehicles to push McLaren into a fence, people on scene told FOX5.
Six months of escalating attacks
The harassment began about six months ago near I-15 and Craig Road, near Walnut. Surveillance cameras installed on police advice captured the escalating attacks.
Over the summer, someone shot small yellow balls through the elderly woman’s windows. In November, a masked person spray-painted “WARNING” on the home, according to the family.
On January 3, home surveillance video shows someone throwing liquid on the home and igniting it. The fire burned until smoke detectors alerted the elderly woman inside, who put the fire out.
“Because he was coming to kill my mom with what he had on him,” said Melonie Keeran-Bolen, the woman’s daughter who lives in New Mexico.
Recent attacks intensify
Early on January 11, someone threw rocks through the woman’s windows and struck again around noon the same day.
Just before midnight that day, video shows a man with containers in both hands approaching the home but walking away without setting anything on fire.
“What we’re assuming is to pour four gallons of gas inside the windows to start a fire inside the house on fire. But the windows were already boarded up by then,” Keeran-Bolen said.
Connection to deceased son
Ring camera footage offers more insight. A man who called himself Russ appeared at the home in December asking about Brady, the elderly woman’s son, who lived there. Melonie Keeran-Bolen was speaking to him from New Mexico on Ring.
“This is Russ. The guy Brady’s been stalking for the last couple years,” the man said during the Ring exchange.
Keeran-Bolen told him Brady died in 2021, but the man expressed disbelief and made unusual statements.
“I know that he does this little electromagnetic frequency thing. I know he’s reptilian,” the man said on Ring camera video.
Melonie Keeran-Bolen kept telling the man Brady was dead and he passed away in 2021, when the man asked for proof.
Neighbors intervene
Wednesday night, family and friends tell FOX5 the elderly woman’s roommate saw McLaren approaching the home with containers of liquid. The roommate and a neighbor used their cars to push him into a fence.
“They used their cars and knocked him into the backyard, with the car. And that’s when the neighbor saw the machete in his hand and he used the bat to knock his arm to get him to drop the machete,” said Kelly Smith, a friend who rushed to help.
Kelly Smith and her son Logan say police found a machete by the fence. Logan says he helped hold down the man before police got there. But says he didn’t see the machete.
“I didn’t see it later than night. But I did hear the cops say it was a big ass machete,” said Logan Smith.
Mclaren went to the hospital and then to jail.
Metro Police confirmed the incident in a report. According to Keeran-Bolen, McLaren told detectives the elderly woman and her deceased son work for the devil and collect souls in the home. She said she appreciates all those who jumped in to stop the man.
The report says police found a two-gallon gasoline jugs on the sidewalk.
“Heroes. They saved my mom,” Keeran-Bolen said of the neighbors who intervened.
“I could never understand how someone could do this to someone. I’m just glad my grandma is okay and just thank you to everyone,” said granddaughter Mickenzey Keeran-Bolen.
The family says other families should be checking on elderly loved ones who may live alone.
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for vandalism damage to the home. They say repairs, just for the windows, will run just over $4,000. Melonie has more information on her Facebook page, Melonie Keeran.
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