Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
By Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
, Jackie Valley (contact)
Published Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011 | 11:03 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011 | 2:54 p.m.
Metro Police arrested Tracy Dale Kauffman, 50, Monday afternoon at McCarran International Airport as he was preparing to buy a plane ticket.
The man arrested in the slaying of a bartender Monday shot his ex-boyfriend as he fled then reloaded a semi-automatic pistol and fired 15 more rounds into his body, a Metro Police report says.
The suspect, Tracy Dale Kauffman, 50, told police he brought a handgun to Las Vegas to scare his ex-boyfriend, Phillip Wells, who worked at The Garage, a gay bar at 1487 E. Flamingo Road, the report says.
Kauffman was arrested at 3:25 p.m. Monday at McCarran International Airport, where police said he was buying a ticket to leave town. He was booked at the Clark County Detention Center on counts of murder with a deadly weapon and burglary with a deadly weapon.
In an interview at Metro’s airport bureau, Kauffman, who lives in Knoxville, Tenn., allegedly said he flew to Las Vegas about a week ago because he was angry with Wells, police said.
Kauffman said Wells took advantage of him, the report says. He carried a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun with him in his luggage, police said.
Kauffman went to the bar shortly before 5:30 a.m. Monday, where Wells was working the graveyard shift, the report says. He began shooting at Wells, who fled to a rear storeroom while two customers escaped out the front door and called police, the report says.
Police said Kauffman fired more shots as he chased Wells to the storeroom, where the bartender fell to the floor, the report says. Kauffman reloaded his gun and fired approximately 15 more shots into Wells’ back and head, police said.
Kauffman told police he then returned to his motel, showered and threw his clothes and gun in a Dumpster, which he watched a garbage truck empty, the report says. He then went to the airport to return to Tennessee.
Kauffman is being held without bail on the murder charge. He is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning.
Thanks, Metro.
Good police work. So this guy just walked into the bar and started shooting? Did he know the bartender? Why is there a burglary charge?
he just bought himself a one way ticket to jail.
Probably a lover or something. Good idea, kill the guy - that will solve the problem.
Let this guy swang until the sun goes down. SCUM
Comment removed by moderator. - -
What is this effen world coming to? it's getting so bad that I'm afraid to even walk outta my house. Such a sad situation :(
@Sun
With all your infinite wisdom about "trusted commenters", the only comment showing on the front page is cwcommish's. Your policy is foolish.
How the heck did this guy get a gun onto a flight heading into Vegas? (I am assuming he flew into Vegas) If this guy can sneak a gun in his luggage, then what is with the close to anal probing we have to go through when we fly?
@dacon1508:
The gun show was over the weekend. Private party sales require no waiting period. Connect the dots.
@ Sunnyside - No need to connect the dots and use your strawman argument about the gun show. The article mentions he brought the gun with him in his luggage.
Chunky says:
It is legal to declare and transport a gun in checked baggage on a plane; it's more common than you'd think.
This guy was so freaked he would have killed the guy with whatever he had at his disposal whether it was a gun or not.
Crimes of this nature exhibiting excessive violence and over-kill are crimes of passion... and insanity.
He'll get his day in court and in prison.
That's what Chunky thinks!
Yes it is true you can carry a firearm in your baggage I do this every time I come to Vegas. Although I haven't been in four years so I can't say if the requirements have changed. It used to required to be inside of a hard shell case and it placed inside of luggage and the rounds were not to be in the gun at all, And when you went to the ticket counter you would declare it to be in the luggage and that piece of luggage got special attention too. That's the one I would put my watch and gold rings in (They watch it very very close).
However don't declare one that you don't have because they will want to know where it is when they don't find it.
This sounds like the the victim was getting away from a abusive relationship. The killer says he just wanted to scare him yeah. The man was shot more than fifteen times with a .40 cal....Unbelievable.
I will pray for the victims family.
True love gone wrong!
Maybe Kaufmann would have killed Phil regardless of whether he could have legally owned and transported this semiautomatic weapon.
But he sure would have had a harder time doing it with a knife or ball bat. Phil was an athletic, strong young man. Tracy was a squirrelly little bugger. I'm not sure Tracy would have had the courage to confront Phil even with a six-shooter.
We certainly don't need semiautomatic weapons for hunting. Why do we need them?
Comment removed by moderator. Like you said, never mind.
What an odd thing to be outraged over.
Premeditated
Execute this guy. He's lost his right to live.
He should have executed himself.
Poor Phillip. Never stood a chance.
Serious question: If he killed this unarmed defenseless bartender because he now hated him for whatever reason, is this still a "hate crime"?
No.
This is from wikipedia, but it's accurate:
In crime and law, hate crimes (also known as bias-motivated crimes) occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or political affiliation.[1]
It's a hate crime if he murders the man because he is gay, not because he hates him.
If it's not a "hate crime" then why do the others get additional sentences for "hate crimes"?
Is this bartender less important than the others of a perceived social group?
Some would argue this shows why more of the sane, rational people should be armed, even inside bars etc. I would tend to agree. You'll never keep guns and other weapons out of people like this perpetrator's hands.
If this guy walked into the bar, pulled out his gun to shoot Phillip...I don't care if Phillip had an Uzi tucked behind his back. He's long dead before he can pull out his gun, point, aim and shoot. Even if he did get the gun out, chances are others will be caught in the crossfire of 2 guys going "wild west".
Thomas Delahunty, if you want to argue the absurdity of hate crime legislation, just do it. You don't have to pretend not to know what one is, or why the legislation was enacted.
I'm of two minds on the gun issue, personally.
I think TV and movies have tricked people into thinking that any of us could ably handle ourselves in a vigilante justice kind of way, that if someone pulled a gun on us, we'd be able to successfully defend ourselves without putting others at risk if ONLY WE were armed as well. I think that's a fantastic and fantastically flawed line of thinking.
On the other hand, I'm willing to accept the sociological hypothesis that fear of others being armed could prevent a lot of people a lot of trouble-seekers from pulling their weapons out in the first place, for fear of retribution.
So then it becomes a question of details. Is the number of incidents we prevent through fear of retaliation greater than the escalation of the incidents that we can't prevent? After all, there are surely plenty of people who will pull that trigger either way. And the more guns are out there, the more gunfights that's going to create. And the more gunfights there are, the more innocent people who are killed.
I don't know the answer. I don't know if we save lives by arming everyone or not. But I don't think it's overreaching to make semiautomatic weapons illegal.
A friend of mine used to ask the simple question: Where does it stop? If you're allowed to have a gun that sprays 20 bullets in 3 seconds, why am I not allowed to defend myself with, say, a grenade? When is enough arms enough?
He loved him to death.
This disgruntled guy wasn't so "gay," was he?
Being Gay make you do crazy things and they want to marry. I say no way Jose
Really, Freddie_ray? That's your argument? That people do crazy things because they're gay?
Never heard of any straight people attacking each other? Really? Never heard of any straight people committing any acts of violence?
Evil_Slayer, you want to know what's crazy? guys killing because one left the other, please. I would rather a fine woman driving me to kill, not a dude!!!
Um, that's because you're straight. If you were gay, you'd rather a fine dude drive you to kill, not a woman. This isn't complicated.
""""Being Gay make you do crazy things and they want to marry. """"
Whaaaa?
This might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Straight people don't do crazy things?