A mannequin that was used to snare a suspected serial killer who is accused of murdering homeless men is set to go on display in a Las Vegas museum.
Metropolitan police had a trick up their sleeves when it came to catching Shane Schindler, 30, who they believed bludgeoned to death two men earlier this year.
Officials staged the mannequin to be dressed like a homeless person, leaving him on the ground in a vacant lot near where the two homeless men had been killed.
Schindler was arrested when he was filmed attacking the dummy in February, and was sentenced to spend between eight and 20 years behind bars in August.
Now, police are putting the mannequin on display at the Mob Museum for the event called Metro Police Sting: Operation Decoy Dummy, on September 19.
A Las Vegas museum will display the mannequin that was used to snare a suspected serial killer accused of murdering homeless men. It will be at the Mob Museum for the event called Metro Police Sting: Operation Decoy Dummy, on September 19
Shane Schindler is accused of murdering two men earlier this year. He was arrested after he was filmed attacking the mannequin in a lot where the men were killed. Pictured: Schindler (left) in a mug shot and (right) in a selfie where police claim the murders happened
Metropolitan Police Department Captain Andy Walsh said the reason for the display is because he and the department owe the community an explanation in the case.
Walsh will be at the event to answer questions during a panel discussion, along with a prosecutor and a homicide detective, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Speaking to the paper, he said the museum night will be a chance for him to ‘talk about the story and remind people that two men they’d never heard of lost their lives on the street corner one night for no reason other than they didn’t have a house to sleep in.’
Walsh added: ‘When we did it, we didn’t ask for permission. I knew it was my responsibility as captain in the community to do this. If we sat back and waited for information to be developed, we could have had a third murder.’
‘It received a lot of media attention when we did it, but it was something that was obviously not traditional.
‘It involved a lot of risk and a lot of coordination. And once we got to the point where the mannequin was attacked, it involved a whole separate set of challenges.’
Officials staged the mannequin to be dressed like a homeless person, leaving him on the ground in a vacant lot near where the two homeless men had been killed
Schindler was filmed on February 22 removing his ball peen hammer from a plastic bag (left) to strike the mannequin on the head twice (right)
Schindler’s ball peen hammer was confiscated at the scene where he hit the mannequin
Schindler was caught by police who were investigating the murders of Daniel Aldape and David Dunn, two homeless men who were beaten to death in January and February.
Another homeless man was assaulted months earlier and survived but did not get a glimpse of his attacker.
Suspecting a serial killer with a specific taste for homeless men, Las Vegas Police detectives laid out the dummy on February 22 and covered the back of its head to make it appear as though it were a real person.
They watched on surveillance footage as Schindler, a Michigan native, approached it with a plastic bag.
He watched the dummy for several seconds then calmly removed his weapon from the bag and launched at the dummy.
After striking it twice in quick succession, he walked slowly away. Police swooped on him seconds later and took him in to custody.
The 30-year-old Michigan native wore a black hoodie and dark trousers to carry out the attack
Footage shows Schindler appear to pull a small sledge hammer from a white plastic Little Caesars Pizza bag (pictured) and take two quick steps towards the head of the dummy
The man was booked into jail, but later released. Police set up a surveillance team which followed him to the Henderson Motel following his release.
When they got there, they searched his room, and found a receipt for a hammer that had been returned to Harbor Freight, and confiscated a second hammer, reported the Review-Journal.
They also confiscated his cellphone, and on it saw two selfies of Schindler laying on his back near where the two murder victims were found dead of head trauma.
As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, Schindler will not face charges for those killings.
He has never admitted to either of them but confessed after his arrest that he believed the mannequin was a person when he attacked it.
Police said it was ‘good for the community’ that the suspected serial killer was off the streets
Police believe Schindler was responsible for bludgeoning the two sleeping homeless men to death and injuring a third.
However cops admit they have no hard evidence to prove this but in June, Schindler pleaded guilty to murdering an inanimate object.
Walsh spoke of his relief earlier this year that Schindler had taken the plea deal.
‘This is good for the community, that he’s taking this deal. He’s off the streets’.