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Officials investigate the site of a shooting and multi-car accident that left three people dead and at least three injured on the Las Vegas Strip early Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013.
Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 | 2 a.m.
Fatal crash
Thursday seemed like any other day inside Strip casinos: Slot machines clanged and people cheered at crowded craps tables. Tourists shopped, ate in restaurants and sipped yard-long drinks.
But it wasn't any other day in Las Vegas.
Outside, Las Vegas Boulevard was closed after an early morning shootout and crash that killed three people and injured six more.
About 4:30 a.m., a man in a black Range Rover opened fire on a Maserati, sending it crashing into a taxi that burst into flames, leaving three people dead and at least six injured.
Police said a confrontation that appeared to have begun in the valet area of the Aria spilled onto Las Vegas Boulevard, leading to sporadic gunshots being fired from the Range Rover as the vehicles traveled north. The crash occurred near Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, the site of several major casinos, including the Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Bally's.
At sundown, the street remained closed from Caesars Palace to Paris Las Vegas, causing people to walk lengthy detours to get to places that usually take only a few minutes.
Yellow crime scene tape blocked the center of the Strip and shut down portions of the sidewalk. Caesars Palace’s main driveway was closed, causing the taxi line to come to a near standstill as traffic had to enter from the back of the building off Frank Sinatra Boulevard.
People who wanted to go from the Flamingo to Bally's needed directions.
"You've got to go down and across the street, through Caesars Palace, over to the Bellagio and down to the Cosmopolitan," a security officer told people blocked by the tape.
Visitors seemed mostly unfazed. Most were more curious than afraid. Many said they have come to accept danger and gun play as a way of life in the United States.
"Does it make me feel less safe? No, this kind of thing happens everywhere," said Rochelle Sam, a tourist from Michigan. "My friends got married yesterday, and we're just going to hang out here until Saturday. It doesn't change our plans."
Kevin Zhang watched his wife and two young children take pictures of television trucks and crews on a portion of Flamingo Road that was shut down to traffic from the Strip to the Bellagio’s north valet station, which also was closed for the day. The Detroit family needed a break.
"We got stuck on the other side of the street this morning," Zhang said. "So we had to walk. And walk. And walk."
The crime scene shut down half of a bar called the Spanish Steps outside of Caesars Palace and completely closed a smaller concession stand near the Absinthe tent. Despite the chaos, businesses reported little effect.
"We didn't open until after 11, but I expected that because I'd seen what was happening on the news," said Victor Mejia, a bartender at the Spanish Steps. "Once we opened, it didn't hurt business much — except there aren't as many places for people because half our bar is closed."
The detour routed people right past Paul Mattingly, a promoter handing out discount tickets for Absinthe.
"If anything, it seems a little slower today," Mattingly said. "I think most people are just going into Caesars Palace and staying there. They may not want to walk all that way."
Most people took the chaos in stride. One man, who believed his friend was involved in the crash, yelled at officers for information. Most just headed away to find their way around the blockades.
Some paused to take pictures of the scene, as if were an attraction. Jose Antonio Zepeda, of Chile, stopped at the intersection between Caesars Palace and the Flamingo, where the tape barrier stopped, to take a picture of a woman posing in front of the police cars.
"We haven't seen anything like this," Zepeda said.
By 9 p.m., the police tape was cleared and traffic returned to normal on the Strip. The walkways were once again congested with people dressed up for a night out; ready to enjoy the Las Vegas nightlife.
At Aria, the valet had a line of taxis and the occasional car pass through — slow, but not unusual for a Thursday night, said one Aria valet worker. Rumors of what had happened that morning floated among tourists, added another worker.
For a few, the violence was too much. Several commenters on the Sun’s website said Thursday’s incident will keep them from coming to Las Vegas.
“My wife is already putting pressure on me to cancel our May visit,” one man wrote. “We've been to Vegas at least eight times in the past 10 years, and if she's leery about returning, think what a future first-time visitor is thinking.”
“Unless Vegas cleans out the riff-raff, they will continue to lose more tourists,” wrote another.
While the shootout and crash attracted national attention, Mark Chambers, a local forensic and clinical psychologist, said it is unlikely people will change their plans to visit the city.
“I think that’s a pretty unusual reaction, a rare reaction,” Chambers said. “I think most people recognize that these kinds of things can happen anywhere.”
Will D’Urso and Brian Nordli contributed to this story.
And the World turns ... was Elvis' "In the Ghetto" about cold and grey Chicago or was it about Las Vegas? End private gun ownership NOW! Or stake with Vegas' economy and jobs.
Guns kill.
Gun control is a must.
this is a murder, on a public street, gangland style, with others killed and incinerated while the criminal rapper "party" goes on
why isnt vegas.com spreading THAT message?
"come to las vegas and get killed at 4:30 am for no reason"
it's too late for the propaganda artists at the Sun and vegas.com to keep a lid on this - news sites were carrying the un-retouched photos of the death scene while the liberal whacko money grubbing propagandists at the Sun airbrushed the charred tourist's arm that was stretched-in-death out of the cab - out of the picture
and the snapshot of the fireball caused by the maserati running the red light and slamming into the cab at high speed was on foreign websites last night
this is so typical of the liberal whacko press - they refused to show the human jumpers from the flaming world trade center when it was hit by muslim islamic jihadists
that's right Sun and vegas.com, let's keep the criminal rapper "party" going, you need the money while everyone else pays the price
I'm not shocked that an incident such as this "rolling shootout" on the Las Vegas strip took place.
Let's face it, Metro and the media did not report this as "gang related" violence, but you can be quite sure it was.
The casino nightclubs cater to this element and could care less where their revenue comes from.
For strip workers trying to make a decent living down there, you might consider during your next union wage and benefits negotiations demanding your employer to compensate you in the form of "hazardous duty pay".
From LA Times: "Authorities had not publicly identified the dead. But a Las Vegas television station late Thursday identified the taxi driver as Michael Boldon, 62, who the station said had recently moved here from Michigan to care for his 93-year-old mother."
No information about the passenger of the taxi cab, so far.
This is so sad. Las Vegas Times writes about "tourists go back to having fun" and looses no word about the victims. What if YOUR family member was shot dead on the strip by some second-amendment-thugs, who effectively turn America into a third-world-nation like Somalia? When will you start asking the right questions? When will you start campaigning for a gun free State of Nevada? Didn't enough people die?
Most people feel safer with a gun than a whistle.
Tax violent video games and rap music instead.
You don't die if someone throws a CD or DVD on your body. Video Games and Rap Music don't kill. Bullets, fired from 2nd-Amendment-fanatics do. And they do it every day.
This would have been already 'handled' if the Mob ran Vegas.
as tragic as this incident it, it will have no measurable affect on las vegas...good or bad that is the mentality of our society today...it wont change my plans or any of my friends who are vegas regulars...my daughter is 2nd year law and her and 10 of her friends are going to vegas for spring break...and i would be willing to bet most of them dont know about this and if they do im sure they dont care...we seem to accept violence as a part of out way of life. we look at it, take pictures posing in front of it and then move on to something else. and to all of you who say how great it was when the mob was in vegas, have you forgot how many incidents similar to this happened more often than now... the mob was a gang who mostly killed other gang (mob) members, and im sure sometimes a civilian was collateral damage...so how is that different than this...a few of the regular complainers will bi*ch and moan as usual then life will go on...is the strip more dangerous than 30 years ago? of course it is, but that does not seem to stop the 40 million visitors who come to vegas each year...and this wont either...
even if 100,000 people decided not to come to vegas because of this...you still have 39.9 million others who will show up...
For those of you who don't think this made international news you're wrong. Calgary Alberta Canada has many flights a day into Vegas. This shoot out was covered on the news up here, and so was the question of if Vegas is still a safe place to visit. The way it was discussed up here was that it started becuase of a night club and gangs, not that the USA has guns. Add that to the many people who return and talk about all the street vendors and costume panhandlers and Vegas is getting a bad name up here. Will it change the minds of people who visit Vegas already from here? Maybe not, but it is making people who have not been down before question if it is still a safe place to go.
It's time for Chief Gillipies to step down. He has lost control of his police force. They have no respect for him, these cowboy days of doing anything and everything are over. He has know idea what his detectives are up to all day. He wants to scrap a 41 million dollar communication system and buy a new one. But not with his own money. Lawsuit after lawsuit. Gillipie must go.
BChap, you should probably admit you have no clue who casino nightclubs are catering to, other than the fact that it's not you. You obviously don't. The vast majority of Las Vegas clubs play electronic and pop music.
Jerry Wayne,they play a lot of hip-hop .
So Metro knew he was a pimp, and he drove a 200K car, yet he was allowed to hang around the strip with virtue impunity ? Sorry it doesn't add up.
It's too soon to say that people are "back to having fun", if the tourists were already there,I doubt they would've run in droves to the airport to get out of Vegas, the question is, will they come back? what will the tourism revenue going to look like in 6 months? what is crime going to look like in the near future? etc...Then we will see how man people are back to having fun...
When are we as a society going to say enough is enough and finally end this senseless violence....by banning rap music.
This would not keep me from coming back to Vegas...it's very sad...would people stop coming back of the robberies that have occurred?
Although I typically stay at off strip casinos to stay away from the mobs of tourists.
"When will you start campaigning for a gun free State of Nevada?"
YA! wouldn't it be wonderful if only the criminals were allowed to have guns, ya that would work good!
Folks this is all part of the leftists plan to overwhelm our systems so the people (low information people) will call for more government controls and be willing to give up freedom for security. It's an old scam done many times before and it works when the people become dumb as rocks like many coming out of the leftest controlled education / indoctrination system!
The strip should be closed down for a motorcade honoring the cab driver. Such was done for Metro officers.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/nov...
Sadly, it will always be like this, especially here in Vegas..I mean, what do you expect with the phrase "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"? I don't know about you, but that just screams out to me, "do what you want, we don't care".
Yes, I truly believe that the tourists have gone back to doing what they love..gambling. I really doubt the true Las Vegas lovers out there will stop coming here. No one seems to care that these criminals have shot a person and that two innocent bystanders in the taxi were killed in a fire ball..all they care about is that they got their "target". Until we as a society start to feel compassion again for the innocents that are killed, we will continue to allow these criminals to do what they want in our streets. Amazing how much we "cry" over children being killed, then a day later we forget and go on with our lives.
And for those of you who keep bringing politics in this conversation, you need to step back and think what if those people in the taxi had been someone you knew????
Lot of speculation about the Range Roveer occupant
http://truenewsusa.blogspot.com/2013/02/...)
People are claiming this person was involved
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/aug...
Even if he is not involved, by saying he is involved he will sell more music and concerts anyway.
What kind of profession is "rapper"?
As far as I know (and I admit, I don't know a lot about this) these guys (the victim and the speculated suspect) weren't famous or well known.
So, why do we call them rappers? When in actuality to me it seems that their true profession (job) is either pimping or drug dealing...
Where am I wrong?
A firefight at the busiest intersection in town and an exploded taxicab engulfed in flames with a couple of charred bodies inside it is no excuse to leave the blackjack tables or the buffett line. It's just like any violent movie we've seen a hundred times, only with real people.
"YA! wouldn't it be wonderful if only the criminals were allowed to have guns, ya that would work good!"
Too stupid to figure out, that criminals will be thrown to jail already when caught OWNING a gun, instead of USING a gun? Today, they walk into gun stores, buy themselves guns, walk out of the store and kill innocent people. How MANIAC is it, not to stop this? How crazy must people be, still claiming the "right to potentially kill other people, by owning a gun". Again, how many people will have to die, until the USA follows every other civilized nation, where guns only belong to the hands of Cops and Soldiers?
I'm sure the Founding Fathers never imagined rap music and the violence that accompanies it.
Rap music needs to be banned.
Most people in Vegas are simply numb to the mayhem and bloodshed after spending a few hours at the $25 limit tables...
Elvegas says "Too stupid to figure out, that criminals will be thrown to jail already when caught OWNING a gun, instead of USING a gun?"
You mean like how being caught with heroin or cocaine gets you thrown in jail. How's that worked out? Did banning drugs and increasing penalties for their possession prevent criminals from obtaining them anyhow? Felons are prohibited from owning guns now, and get "thrown to jail already when caught OWNING a gun" currently. How's that worked out? No gun crimes being committed by felons...right?
And then he says - "Again, how many people will have to die, until the USA follows every other civilized nation, where guns only belong to the hands of Cops and Soldiers?"
Which ones are you referring to? The UK - where they saw an 89% increase in violent crime int he first 10 years after they banned guns? Perhaps Australia - where the experts hired by the government to study the effects of the gun ban went on record as saying that the ban failed to cause any measurable reduction in violent crime?
Sorry, but outside of your sophomoric dream world, laws banning guns have never resulted in a reduction in the supply available to criminals or achieved a reduction in violent crime.
It's revolving door justice that is the true bane on society. We have guys getting arrested in this town over and over and over and over. Then get released. Then when they move on to violent crime, we find a rap sheet 6 miles long.
3 strikes..life imprisonment. I don't care if strike 3 is stealing a pack of gum. Most of the crimes committed are by repeat offenders.
Mandatory 10 years in prison for the first offense using a gun. Whether in your possesion illegally or in the act of a crime. It won't stop it all but it sure will slow down some of it.
The victim was not a rapper, he was a pimp.
Freedom of Speech Noindex. Rap is a very broad musical category with many sub-genres. Your statements are uninformed and un-American.
Everyone knows who got in the other car, why keep it a secret because it is not? All over the NET.
another piece of crap off the streets . Just sad for the innocent victims