Henderson police shoot, kill gunman at hotel
Henderson police shot and killed an armed man when he “engaged” them after a disturbance call to a hotel Saturday morning, a police spokeswoman said.
Officers were called about 9:15 a.m. to the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel at 1340 W. Warm Springs Road, near Stephanie Street, where police said a man in his mid- to late 30s was firing multiple shots inside his hotel room and out the room’s window, police spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said.
The man’s room on the first floor faces north toward a business and a daycare, Richards said. The daycare, Bright Horizons Education and Preschool, was put on lockdown and Henderson police evacuated the hotel, set up a perimeter and called SWAT to the scene.
As police approached the shooter’s room on the first floor of the hotel, he emerged, “engaged with officers” and was shot, Richards said. She said it was unclear if he was firing his weapon when he was shot.
The man died at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, she said. The Clark County coroner’s office will identify him when his family is notified.
No other injuries resulted from the shooting, Richards said.
Further details on the circumstances of the shooting were not immediately available.
Teresa Bonillas, 24, and Priscilla Porter, 25, visiting Henderson from Los Angeles, told the Review-Journal they were staying in a room four doors down from the shooter. They described a chaotic scene Saturday as guests evacuated the hotel.
About 9 a.m., the two woke to “crashing noises” down the hall, then a SWAT officer arrived with a loud bang to their room door, they said. They threw on their clothes and joined dozens of other hotel guests in sprinting toward the exit.
“Everybody was running, it was pretty nerve-racking,” Bonillas said. “We didn’t know what was going on.”
Kathleen Capley, 54, and daughter Amanda Capley, 23, visiting from Phoenix, described a similar experience.
While in a second-floor room, the mother and daughter heard “loud, blaring” music minutes before a police officer holding a weapon, which they said stretched across his body, opened the door and escorted them out.
“All they said was ‘you need to get out right now,’” Kathleen Capley said. “I had never seen so many police cars and officers at once.”
The Capleys stood on the corner of Warm Springs and Julia Street for over two hours as police barricaded the hotel and eventually shot the man.
“It was a surreal feeling,” Amanda Capley said. “You can’t really imagine something like that until it actually happens.”
Despite the heavy Henderson police presence during the shooting, guests interviewed by the Review-Journal said they were impressed with how officers handled the situation, and that they would not hesitate to return to the Hilton Garden Inn in the future.
“It was an isolated incident and I don’t think it reflects the people here at all,” Kathleen Capley said. “I can’t say enough good about the police and hotel staff for their organized and calm response.”
The second and third floors of the hotel were reopened to guests by 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The area around the shooter’s room remained taped off through 4:30 p.m., while police continued their investigation.
A man who answered the phone at the hotel Saturday afternoon said that there was no one available to comment.
Review-Journal photographer Bizu Tesfaye and writer Ricardo Torres contributed to this report. Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find her on Twitter: @lauxkimber. Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.
