The suspect in the fatal shooting Sunday morning at the Silver Nugget in North Las Vegas is seen at right in this image from the casino's security cameras. Courtesy of North Las Vegas Police
A man in his early 20s was killed and a woman was wounded in an early morning shooting Sunday at the Silver Nugget casino in North Las Vegas, police said.
In video surveillance footage released by the North Las Vegas police, a man who appears to be in his late teens or early 20s can be seen firing a handgun at several people after a fight broke out about 4:25 a.m. near the door of the Silver Nugget pool hall.
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The casino's security guards had been alerted of a disturbance in the pool hall and had gone into the room to force out the group of men and a few women, all of whom appeared to be in their late teens or early 20s. The guards aren't seen on the video released to the media.
As the group steps out of the billiards room into a hallway near the east-side entrance of the casino, which is on Las Vegas Boulevard near Lake Mead Boulevard, one of the larger men in the group can be seen arguing with the smallest man in the group. Another man then sucker-punches the smaller man.
The group starts to scatter as another man splashes a drink in the face of the shooter, who pulls out a handgun and begins firing.
Holding up his baggy khaki shorts with his left hand and holding the gun in his right, the gunman trots up and then back down the hallway area, firing at least three shots.
People in the area scramble for cover and disappear from the camera's view behind a pillar. Neither victim can be seen after the shooting.
The woman was shot in the hand and taken to University Medical Center for treatment, police said.
A few seconds later, the suspect stops shooting and runs out with another man.
Like the rest of the group he was with, the gunman is black. He was wearing a dark baseball cap with the brim turned to the back of his head, a dark sweat shirt with a gray strip about 6 inches wide on both sleeves and oversize cargo shorts.
Sean Walker, a spokesman for the North Las Vegas police, said the Silver Nugget is frequented by locals and the elderly and hasn't had any previous shootings. "But every once in a while you get a bad seed," Walker said.
A representative of the Silver Nugget could not be reached for comment Sunday.
In the casino parking lot Sunday afternoon, a woman who wouldn't give her name said she goes to the Silver Nugget regularly and was surprised to hear of the shooting.
"It's a very safe place. I feel safer here than at the bigger casinos," she said.
Police are asking the public for help in identifying the gunman.
"The tape's good enough that we think we can (identify him)," Walker said.
Casinos are the worst place to try to get away with crime because they have so many surveillance cameras, Walker said.
