Las Vegas killing not terror attack
UNITED STATES: A man on a bus headed down the Las Vegas Strip pulled out a handgun and began firing yesterday morning, killing one person and wounding another before he surrendered hours later to police.
The unidentified suspect was described by Las Vegas police as a local resident in his 50s.
Assistant Sheriff Tom Roberts said the man appeared to have ‘‘some mental issues’’ as SWAT team negotiators tried to coax him out of the bus after most of the passengers had streamed off it.
‘‘We found that very evident when we talked to him,’’ said Roberts, who said terrorism had been ruled out as a motive.
The initial shooting, which occurred mid-morning, forced the closure of parts of the Strip to traffic for about seven hours.
Both victims, who were not identified, were taken to University Medical Centre, where one later died.
Roberts said the victim who survived was shot in the stomach. He said the suspect did not empty his handgun during the shooting, but did fire it from time to time while in the midst of negotiating with police.
Police did not return fire at any point.
Witnesses heard the sound of an explosion from as far away as the Monte Carlo Hotel and Casino; SWAT team units had detonated a device to break the windows of the bus to allow a robot to enter the vehicle to see if the suspect was inside.
The suspect was taken to Clark County Jail and it was unclear if he had a criminal history.
The shooting happened on a busy weekend in Las Vegas, where a high volume of visitors had flocked in for the popular March Madness college basketball tournament and a sold-out pre-season game at Cashman Field between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds.
Earlier in the day, the Bellagio Hotel and Casino was the scene of a bizarre attempted robbery, when would-be thieves wearing pig masks attempted a heist from a high-end retail shop, using sledgehammers to break into a jewellery case and sending panicked guests fleeing into the street amid reports of an ‘‘active shooter.’’
There were no injuries in that incident, which police said was unrelated to the shootings on the bus.
As the shooting unfolded on the double-decker bus, people walking on the Strip were asked to re-enter nearby casinos and some workers at The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino were sent home early from work after being herded to a safe part of the building.
Brittany Smith was working the cash register at a local gadget shop when a crush of customers came in talking about the incident. They compared news from their social media accounts on their phones to try to figure out what happened.
Smith wondered if the loud boom meant someone was tearing down a casino for redevelopment.
’’When I heard the explosion, I thought ‘I didn’t think a casino was coming down. They usually let us know that ahead of time,’’ she said.
With the Strip closed to vehicle traffic, the famous stretch of road had a surreal appearance, devoid of cars except for the flashing lights of emergency vehicles parked near Caesars Palace.
Lewis Wood and two friends had come from New York on vacation and he said it was his first trip to Las Vegas.
The trio posed for pictures in the middle of the empty road, trying to get the emergency lights flashing in the background. It was one for the memories.
‘‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,’’ Wood said. ‘‘It’s a photo op.’’ – Los Angeles Times