Casino gunfire leaves two dead

Ed Koch and Mary Manning

Friday, April 2, 2004 | 11:38 a.m.

A cab driver for the Henderson Taxi company for five years, Lester Staniowski has a premonition that one day he would be shot and killed.

"He used to come home and say, 'They (robbers) got another one of us today,' " said Staniowski's wife of 24 years, Sharon. " 'One of these days they'll probably get me.' "

Staniowski, 51, of North Las Vegas, was shot to death Thursday night, trying to prevent a gunman from firing at a bartender inside the Eureka casino on East Sahara Avenue.

The gunman, whose name has not been released, was later shot and killed by police.

"I could have accepted it if it had happened on the job, but not something bizarre like this," Sharon Staniowski said. "Yes, I have some solace that he died a hero -- and that someone else is alive today because he acted as he did -- but I'm just ticked that because of it he will never come home."

Sharon Staniowski and a friend said they were not surprised that Staniowski would risk his life to save another.

"He wouldn't have run across the room to do it," Sharon Staniowski said, "but my husband just could not sit by and play his keno machine while someone near him threatened his good friend (the bartender) with a gun. He tried to lunge at the guy and stop him before someone got hurt."

Ron Dempsi, a former graveyard-shift bartender at the casino who quit in August 2003, said Staniowski "was a very, very, very good person."

Dempsi said he had seen 14 attempted robberies in his 10 years on the job at the Eureka.

"Lester was a customer and a friend," he said. "He was a good Samaritan."

Staniowski died at University Medical Center. The gunman was shot and killed in the casino's parking lot by two Metro Police patrol officers about 7:15 p.m., Metro Capt. Tom Lozich of the robbery and homicide division said.

The gunman, a 51-year-old casino patron, had become angry after gambling away his money, some of the witnesses and police said.

He got into a verbal fight with the bartender, left the bar and returned moments later with a handgun. He pointed the gun at the bartender and fired several times, Lozich said.

Staniowski, who was sitting at the bar, grabbed the suspect and the suspect shot and killed him then ran out the back door into the parking lot, police said.

Two Metro patrol officers, who were at a neighboring business on an unrelated call, responded to cries for help. The officers, who were on foot, encountered the suspect, who was trying to drive out of the parking lot.

The officers shot the man after he jumped out of the car and pointed his gun at them, Lozich said.

"The officers feared for their lives," Lozich said.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. No one else in the casino or the parking lot was injured.

Both officers have been placed on paid administrative leave, Lozich said. Their identities will be withheld for 48 hours under Metro's policy.

Police closed the casino for hours to interview people inside and outside the Eureka. At least a dozen witnesses were inside the casino at the time of the shooting and were being interviewed, Lozich said.

Police today were reviewing videotapes that captured the violent events, Lozich said.

"We are still trying to put the pieces together," he said. "This is an ongoing investigation."

Casino patron Mike Martin said he heard three shots, then two more, as he played slot machines in the casino.

Martin said the man argued with the bartender before pulling a handgun on him.

As the shooting started, many people ducked and others ran out of the casino, he said.

"Everybody hit the floor as people behind me started chasing the gunman," Martin said. "I won't be coming back here after this time."

Sharon Staniowski, a home care nurse, said she was called by a bar patron and was told that her husband was shot and taken to UMC. When she called UMC and was told that someone would "talk to" her, she said her experience in the medical profession caused her to realize the news was not going to be good.

With the couple's two sons, 20-year-old Matt, a petroleum company worker, and 18-year-old Greg, a home-schooled high school senior, she went to UMC and was informed of what happened by Clark County Coroner investigators.

Upon learning that the man who killed her husband was dead, she said, "It's just as well because the way my kids were talking they would have gone after him."

Canadian citizens, the Staniowskis moved to Las Vegas in 1992 from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where Lester had worked 17 years as an engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railroad and before that as a military police officer in the Canadian Army.

"Perhaps my husband's finest quality was that when he decided to do something, he really did it well," Sharon said. "That is something he tried to instill in our kids. "

In addition to his wife and mother, Staniowski is survived by a sister, Stephanie Courteau of Ottawa, Ontario; two brothers, Eddie Staniowski of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Robbie Staniowski of Moose Jaw.

Services are pending.

The family said at Staniowski's longstanding request, he will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered into the crisp winds that blow through the forest near the family's Canadian hunting camp. Sun reporter Jennifer Lawson contributed to this report.