A woman is accused of stabbing a man in the neck on March 5 at a hotel near Las Vegas. The 21-year-old woman said she committed the stabbing as revenge for the 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, according to police.
Nika Nikoubin faces charges of attempted murder, two counts of battery with a deadly weapon, and burglary of a business, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She is being held on $60,000 bail.
Nikoubin allegedly met a man on the dating site Plenty of Fish, then lured him to the Sunset Station Hotel and Casino in Henderson, Nevada. While inside the hotel room, the couple began engaging in sexual activity. Nikoubin put a blindfold on the man, then turned the lights off. Several minutes later, the victim “felt a pain on the side of his neck,” KLAS-TV reported. She reportedly pulled out a knife from her purse and attacked the unsuspecting victim.
The man pushed Nikoubin off of him and then ran out of the 14th-floor hotel room to call the police around 10:30 that night. Nikoubin also ran out of the room, and told a hotel employee that she had just stabbed a man, police said.
Nikoubin allegedly told authorities at the Henderson Police Department that she stabbed the man as revenge for the death of Qassem Soleimani – who was killed during a U.S. Air Force drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020. Soleimani was the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force.
“She advised that there are injustices, in particular the killing of Qasem Soleimani in Iran,” homeland security detectives added to the Henderson arrest report. “Nikoubin stated she wanted revenge.”
MEAWW reported Nikoubin is a “Las Vegas resident that previously worked as a front desk associate at Cycle Bar” based on her social media posts.
The Daily Mail reported that a Facebook post from UCLA’s debate team in 2020 listed Nikoubin as a third-year student and said that 2020 was her first year as a JV coach.
Nikoubin is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on March 24.