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Honeymooners Chad and Darbi McEwan of Albuquerque, New Mexico pack up their car as they prepare to leave an Extended StayAmerica hotel at 4270 S. Valley View Blvd. Friday, February 29, 2008. The couple were unable to get back into the hotel the night before after the toxin ricin was found in the hotel but were given a complete refund and were going to find another hotel, they said.
UPDATE
Metro Police on Friday expanded their investigation into why several vials of ricin were found in a motel room at Flamingo Road and Valley View Boulevard, just west of the Strip, to an Excalibur room — but said they do not believe the city is in danger of a terrorist threat.
Police are trying to determine the role of the relative of the sick man in the incident, but said they do not believe he came into contact with the ricin.
Capt. Joe Lombardo of Metro's Homeland Security Bureau said Friday night that the 53-year-old relative of the man who had occupied the Extended Stay America room had also stayed at the Excalibur Wednesday night.
That prompted Metro's hazardous materials team to search the Excalilbur room. But after two hours of searching, no trace of ricin had been found according to Lombardo.
"I want to assure everybody that the Las Vegas Valley is safe," Lombardo said. "We currently don't have a terrorist threat."
New details and a clearer timeline of events were revealed at a press conference Friday night.
Lombardo said that on Feb. 22 a relative of the 57-year-old man who had been hospitalized since Feb. 14 in a local hospital with respiratory problems called the Extended Stay Motel manager to tell him that animals were in the room.
The manager called the Humane Society which rescued a dog and two cats from the room. According to Lombardo, a veterinarian had to put the dog to sleep.
On Feb. 27— almost two weeks after the sick man went to the hospital — the manager went to his room to evict him, but instead, discovered guns and an anarchist-type textbook with information about ricin in it, Lombardo said.
"It doesn't make you a terrorist to have an anarchist-type textbook," Lombardo said.
Police are still investigating how and why the ricin was in the ill man's room.
According to Lombardo, the same relative who reported the animals, visited the room on Feb. 28 to gather belongings and said he found something suspicious. He brought a vial that contained ricin to the manager's office. This was when the police, hazardous materials teams, the National Guard and the FBI were called to the scene, Lombardo said.
"At this time the investigation is ongoing," Lombardo said.
The man who was occupying the room where ricin was discovered Thursday night had called paramedics on Feb. 14, saying he was having trouble breathing, police said today.
Since then, he has been at Spring Valley Hospital in critical condition and unable to speak to investigators about what happened in the hotel room at Flamingo Road and Valley View Boulevard, Metro Police Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said.
Dr. Lawrence Sands, chief health officer of the Southern Nevada Health District, said if a person is exposed to a lethal dose of ricin, death can occur in 36 to 72 hours. However, if someone survives three to five days, recovery is possible.
The laboratory at the Health District confirmed that the white powder found in several vials in a plastic bag was ricin, a powerful substance that is used in organ transplants and cancer treatment, but that can be lethal in doses inhaled, swallowed or injected in amounts that cover the head of a pin.
Police do not know if the substance belonged to the sick man and he is not a suspect, Suey said.
Invesigators and hazardous materials teams arrived at the Extended Stay America Motel after 2:30 p.m. Thursday, when a friend or relative brought a vial of the substance to the motel's office manager, Suey said. For 12 hours authorities cleaned and cleared the motel room and other potential areas that could have been contaminated, she says.
Seven other people, including the motel manager and some police officers, were taken to local hospitals for examination, but none of them have shown any signs or symptoms of ricin poisoning, Suey says.
The manager had begun an eviction after the sick man didn't pay his bill, suey says.
OH $hit is all I can think. No body caught on since the guy went in the hospital on the 14th!! The news spins can't agree on one story but the truth is out there. Someone screwed up and missed this the first time around. They dont know how many people were in the room during this guys stay. A friend OR?! relative went to collect his belongings from the hotel?!! They don't even know who the man was but he turned in the bag to the manager in one story, and in another 3 police, 3 workers, and 1 guest went to the hospital. They tested ok? Bull there is no test for Ricin exposure. It is 100% Ricin! That is a weapons grade level extraction, not an easy job to go from Castor bean to that pure a level. It is Illegal to possess, but the stories can't agree on even this. My guess is this guy was teaching Ricin making 101 to a bunch of individuals who all are still loose in Las Vegas.
With the INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CONFERENCE just around the corner and Spring Break in Las Vegas you get 2 targets for the price of one. The Extended Stay America Hotel is only 2.5 miles away from the huge Sands Expo and Conference Center that just celebrated its completion on 2-8-08. With more than 1.8 million square feet of combined meeting and event space, the Sands Expo and Convention Center and Venetian Congress facility, is the third largest in the country, and the finest of its kind.
Here is a list of other potential targets.
MARCH 10-13 - AUTOMOTIVE OIL CHANGE ASSOCIATION - Attendees: 2,500
MARCH 10-13 - SHOWEST – MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY - Attendees: 10,000
MARCH 11-13 - CONEXPO - CON/AGG - CONSTRUCTION
co-located show IFPE 2008: the International Exposition for Power Transmission
Attendees: 135,000
MARCH 16-19 - INTERNATIONAL HALLOWEEN, COSTUME & PARTY SHOW - Attendees: 4,000
MARCH 17-18 - NATIONAL ALLIANCE OF CERTIFIED LEGAL NURSE CONSULTANTS - Attendees: 3,000
MARCH 24-28 - NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION INSTITUTE, INC. - Attendees: 1,700
MARCH 25-29 - WATER QUALITY ASSOCIATION - Att: 2,000
MARCH 31-APRIL 4 - INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS (IEEE) - Attendees: 2,300
APRIL 1-3 - CELLULAR TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INTERNET ASSOCIATION - Attendees: 40,000
APRIL 1-3 - IPC ASSOCIATION CONNECTING ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIES/PRINTED CIRCUITS EXPO, APEX & THE DESIGNERS SUMMIT - Attendees: 5,000
APRIL 2-4 - INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CONFERENCE - Attendees: 17,000
Why was this kept quiet until now well the last few months have been really terrible for the Las Vegas economy, and we don’t want to scare off the Spring Break, and NCAA March Madness Sports Book gamblers do we?! I’m going to Vegas 3-14 to 3-20 but I’ll be drinking bottled water, and maybe wearing a respiratory mask. Hell I hope I’m being paranoid.
PappaSmurf
PS. A small plane just crashed on State Highway 157 South of milemarker 12. The crash site is Northwest of a training area by a water basin in the desert. Yep bottled water for sure.
Thank you for such good information! Seems to put it all together.
I'd be interested in knowing if this guy in the hospital was in any way connected with the American Enterprise Institute, with the Republican Party, or associated with any member of the Bush admistration. If he did have any such connection, you'd have to wonder if his target was going to be the Democratic Convention. Such a scenario isn't as far fetched as it may seem at first glance.
Remember that only Democratic members of Congress recieved anthrax letters some years ago, and to date there have been no arrests in the case. Seems that the FBI and the Justice Dept are not interested in pursuing the matter any further. Yet isn't it remarkable that within hours after 9/11 the press was supplied with photos of all 19 of the hijackers, even though every one on those two planes were completely obliterated.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/1...
More recently, the Secret Service asked Dallas Police to stand down in their weapons screening at an Obama rally in Texas. This is a rather disturbing harbinger for the Democratic Convention.
http://www.star-telegram.com/667/story/4...
If the Vegas Metro Police Dept were to look into this matter and check on this man's political connections, I wouldn't be surprised if the FBI engaged in obstructing any such investigation.