Downtown Las Vegas shooting at bus stop leaves 1 dead — VIDEO
A security officer fatally shot a man at a bus stop Thursday afternoon in downtown Las Vegas, police said.
Police officers responded about 2 p.m. to Casino Center Boulevard and Fremont Street to find a man suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest, Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said at briefing at the scene. The man, in his early 40s, was taken to University Medical Center, where he died.
The security officer was a contract worker with the Regional Transportation Commission, Spencer said. The security guard, is in his late 40s, was cooperating and was being interviewed by police. He had not been charged as of Thursday evening, Spencer said.
Spencer said the shooting happened after a physical fight between the man and the security guard at a bus stop outside Binion’s on Casino Center. He said police were unsure what led to the fight.
“The initial statement that I did receive was that there was a struggle over the security officer’s firearm,” he said. “That was preliminary; we have not been able to confirm that.”
The man who was shot was “a local transient,” Spencer said. He will be identified by the Clark County coroner’s officer after his family has been notified.
Allied Universal, a security company that contracts with the RTC, released a statement Thursday evening.
“We deeply regret this tragic situation and are cooperating fully with the Las Vegas Police Department and RTC in their investigation,” the statement read. “As the investigation is ongoing and details are being learned, we are unable to provide more details at this time.”
Police continued to investigate Thursday evening, looking for security camera footage from nearby businesses and speaking with witnesses from a bus that was driving by at the time of the shooting, he said.
“At this point, it does not appear that it’s accidental,” Spencer said of the shooting.
The man’s death marked the third homicide investigated by Metro police in 2019 and the fifth in Clark County, according to Review-Journal records.
The shooting came just hours after suspicious package led police to close streets downtown Thursday morning until the package was deemed safe.
The package was discovered while police responded about 9:45 a.m. to the 300 block of South Fourth Street, near East Bridger Avenue, to reports of a bank robbery in progress, Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Aden OcampoGomez said. Police found the package while taking someone into custody.
It was unclear Thursday what the package was or where it was found.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Mike Shoro contributed to this report.
