Bullet that hit Rio room a mystery

Jen Lawson

Friday, March 21, 2003 | 11:30 a.m.

Monica Edwards of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was asleep in her hotel room at The Rio March 4 when she was awakened by the sound of breaking glass.

Edwards looked at the window and saw a hole the size of a golf ball. She was stunned: Someone had fired a bullet through the window of her 21st-floor room.

"I was trembling. I couldn't catch my breath," 60-year-old Edwards said. "I hit the phone and said 'Something just came through my window.' "

Edwards, who is retired and comes to Las Vegas three or four times a year, was in town for the NASCAR race and a heavyweight fight. She and her son, Ty, 36, stayed at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas.

Then Edwards, who was in Las Vegas two days longer than her son, checked into The Rio, where she had been provided with a complimentary suite.

Before going to bed around midnight on March 4, Edwards opened the drapes and looked down at the lights of the city. Her room faced south, with the Palms to the west and the Strip to the east.

"It was so beautiful looking out earlier," she said. "It was gorgeous with those millions of lights out there."

But that feeling was shattered about 4:40 a.m. when the bullet came through the floor-to-ceiling double-paned window.

"She could have been hit," Ty Edwards said. "That's very, very unsettling."

Security officers and Metro Police came to investigate and hotel employees ushered Edwards into a different room.

"They kept asking, 'Are you OK?' "she said. "I was so nervous. I just wanted to know what came through my window."

The next day, the hotel comped some phone calls Edwards had made and gave her a ride to the airport. She left not knowing what exactly had happened.

Hotel officials and police said they don't have an explanation.

Gary Thompson, spokesman for Harrah's Entertainment, which owns The Rio, said a bullet fragment was found in Edwards' room, but Metro and hotel authorities weren't able to determine where the bullet came from or why it was fired.

The hotel, 51 stories high, is located on West Flamingo Road at Interstate 15, and isn't near any buildings of that height.

"Obviously, we'd like to know what happened as well," Thompson said. "It's an unfortunate incident. Our primary concern is the safety of our staff and guests, and fortunately no one was injured."

Edwards, who is still rattled by the incident, said: "I know I'll never stay in a building like that again."