Victim recounts terror of suspect stalking victims

Robert Macy

Wednesday, June 9, 1999 | 1:54 a.m.

LAS VEGAS - A gunman who killed four people in a supermarket shooting rampage methodically stalked his victims as a hunter would stalk his prey, a survivor said Wednesday.

"I close my eyes and I can see him standing there with that shotgun just before he aims the shotgun at me," said the witness, who requested anonymity. "He's got that stupid smirk on his face."

The man was one of three people allegedly fired upon by 23-year-old Zane Michael Floyd during a pre-dawn shooting spree at an Albertson's supermarket two blocks west of the Strip last Thursday.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, the survivor told how he and three store employees climbed into a cramped compressor room in the back of the store, and watched as the gunman scoured the aisles for more victims.

"We could see the gunman walking by, a deliberate, quiet walk, sweeping the gun from side to side, like a hunter stalking his prey," the survivor said.

Floyd has been charged with 15 counts, including four counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder, five counts of sexual assault, one count of kidnapping and one count of burglary.

He was arraigned before Justice of the Peace James Bixler on Wednesday, with a preliminary hearing set for June 25. Public defender Curtis Brown said he has not discussed a plea with Floyd.

Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty in the case.

The sexual assault and kidnapping charges stem from an incident just 90 minutes before the attack at the grocery store. An employee of an escort service said she was called to Floyd's home, where she was tied up with tape and raped at gunpoint. Police say the employee told workers at the escort service that a man identifed as "Zane" bragged of having 19 bullets, with plans to kill the next 19 people he saw.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sgt. Kevin Manning Wednesday confirmed that Floyd had a "beef" with his girlfriend the evening before the shootings.

"The girlfriend wanted to go home (from a local casino) and he wanted to stay, so he gave her the keys and she left," Manning said. The girlfriend has not been identified.

The survivor said his ordeal began when he stopped by the store on his way home from work as a dealer in a local casino. He brought some pastry and two cartons of milk to a checkout stand and was waiting for a cashier when he heard a gunshot.

"I knew immediately what it was," he said, pausing to compose himself. "I didn't see the person shot, just the horrible, horrible sound of a gunshot echoing through the store. Just that sound of death."

The gunman shot an employee in the entryway to the store, then walked inside and opened fire on other employees.

The survivor said he was intended as the second victim.

"I looked up and out of the vestibule steps this guy with a shaved head," he said. "He has this smirk on his face, and he's holding this shotgun across his body. I saw him about the same time he spots me. I took off running trying to find an emergency exit in the back."

The survivor said he heard a second shot he believes was meant for him. It ripped through a Pepsi display.

"He just wanted to kill people," he said. "I thought I was dead. God, I thought I was dead."

He ran through the store yelling at some of the 25 employees and customers, warning "big guy, shotgun, big guy, shotgun."

The survivor joined three employees in scrambling up a ladder to the compressor room. They disconnected the lights in the cramped quarters and grabbed pipes, hoping to fend off the attacker if he found them.

The gunman was walking near the room when the survivor dropped a pipe.

"I was sure I had killed us at that point," he recounted.

He said the four cowered in the compressor room for 30 minutes before someone opened the door. Fearful it was the gunman, the four were euphoric when they learned it was a policeman searching the store with police dogs.

"I ran my hand over his badge, grabbed onto his bulletproof vest," he recalled.

The officer led the four out of the store, trying to avoid the bodies left by the rampage.

"We saw one body lying in the middle of the store, a pool of blood from a head wound," he said.

The survivor said one employee told him Floyd had been removed from the store a few weeks earlier, but a district manager could find no paperwork on the incident.

The survivor said the incident has left him emotionally devastated.

"I can't bring myself to say his name. I just call him the kid or the rat (expletive). Jerks like this are taking away our freedom."