Four shot after brawl on the Strip - News

PRINT THIS Popular

Aug. 20, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Four shot after brawl on the Strip

By DAVID KIHARA
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Tourists stroll near Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Cafe on the Strip on Sunday afternoon, hours after shots hit four bystanders.
Photo by Craig L. Moran.

Four bystanders were hit by gunfire on the Strip early Sunday morning, after a brawl involving about 20 men erupted outside a restaurant near Flamingo Road, Las Vegas police said.

The victims, all in their mid-20s, included at least one tourist, police said. No one was seriously wounded and by Sunday afternoon all of the victims, except the female tourist, who is from California, had been released from local hospitals.

Most Popular Stories

NORM: When live news shots turn bad

NORM: Terry Fator, wife ending marriage

NORM: Blaze breaks out during magic act

NORM: Jackson worked on album at Palms

Ex-Ensign aide details wife's affair

NORM: Jacksons set up LV memorial area

Ensign wrote lover a letter, saying their affair was a 'sin'

LV area residential real estate sales reach record in June

Coroner says sexual assault suspect killed by police was shot in back

Official: Fatal gunshot in back

The fight started about 3:15 a.m. on the sidewalk in front of Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Cafe, when two men bumped into each other, police said. Two groups of men, totaling about 20, began arguing and soon started throwing bottles, cans and punches, police said.

"Witnesses described it as a miniriot," said officer Ramon Denby, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department.

During the fight, one of the men pulled out a gun and began firing toward O'Shea's, a casino next door to Margaritaville, police said.

The gunfire struck four bystanders in the legs. After the shooting, dozens of people, including the four shooting victims, took shelter inside O'Shea's, police said.

Police were on the scene within seconds of the shooting, but by the time they arrived the men involved had fled, Denby said.

Police were reviewing surveillance footage of the fight late Sunday but hadn't yet identified the shooter. Denby said the gunman is between 17 and 21 years old, thin, and was wearing a baggy, white T-shirt and baggy pants. Police didn't know if the shooter or the men involved in the melee are local residents or tourists.

According to the Flamingo Las Vegas, which owns O'Shea's and is a part owner of Margaritaville, the suspects and victims weren't guests at their hotels.

The shooting was the third on the Strip in about a month and a half, but it didn't dampen the spirits of people at Margaritaville on Sunday afternoon.

The bar was filled shoulder to shoulder with people socializing. Others, drinks in hand, mingled on a walkway in front of the bar and restaurant.

Most people interviewed Sunday afternoon didn't know a shooting had occurred hours earlier. "We live in L.A.; L.A. is just as bad, if not worse," said Tim Moore, 24, who was spending a few days in Las Vegas.

Dave Bradley, a 47-year-old a firefighter from Kansas City, Mo., also said he wasn't frightened by news of the shooting. When asked if it would affect his vacation, he replied: "I wasn't shot. I'm good."

On July 6, 51-year-old Steven Zegrean opened fire from a second-floor mezzanine inside the New York-New York, wounding four people, none fatally.

Bystanders tackled Zegrean, ending his shooting spree.

Zegrean told police he was depressed about losing his job and had hoped police would shoot and kill him. He faces multiple charges, including attempted murder with a deadly weapon and battery with a deadly weapon.

On Aug. 4, 34-year-old Richard Earl Shepherd opened fire inside Caesars Palace after fighting with a man he believed had been disrespectful to his sister. Shepherd wounded two bystanders, police said.

Shepherd turned himself in after the shooting. He faces multiple charges, including attempted murder with a deadly weapon, battery and assault.

Denby said police have almost tripled their numbers on the Strip recently. It was unclear if that is in response to the recent shootings.

Share & Save

Leave Your Comment	77 Reader Comments
Terms & Conditions The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The reviewjournal.com does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please notify the web editor. Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 48 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. matt wrote on October 03, 2007 09:46 AM: Did they ever catch the shhoter in this case?? Tagyerit wrote on September 19, 2007 09:46 AM: Ronnie, Cause they [MPD] aren't being rubbed the right way... so to speak heh? heh heh heh! Ronnie Garner wrote on September 12, 2007 06:07 PM: Four shot on strip. Yeah. Great. Sooooo, why is the LV Metro Police Department mounting an all-out assault on massage parlors? Any masseuses shooting people? sam wrote on September 07, 2007 12:44 PM: with a mayor like ours, what do you really expect? Sep wrote on August 24, 2007 06:35 AM: Giuliani cleaned up NYC, which was much worse off than we are. The right leadership, combined with an electorate astute enough to get with the program, is the most viable solution. As opposed to the Little Hitlers in this thread & their "send the blacks back to Africa" white-sheet-dunce-cap racism. John J wrote on August 23, 2007 05:59 PM: That whole area between BARBARY COAST and Harrahs has just become a mini ghetto and seems to get worse and worse everytime We vist... Thanks Vegas for catering to these young fools and chasing the older respectable people out!!! Sep wrote on August 21, 2007 10:25 PM: stop sep: Points? Please. At what point do crime rates become so egregious that "send 'em back to [insert country of origin here]" becomes yours and milan's battle cry? Your premise appears to be that because a majority of crime here is perpetrated by [insert ethnic group(s) here], [ ] should be excised from the population. Back in my old stomping grounds, the vast majority of crime – by FAR - is committed by [insert ethnic group here]. I'll ask you the same question milan ran away from: Should [ ] be expelled? If not, why not? By the way, its similarities with Mein Kampf notwithstanding, your whining about impending Asian extinction is one of he most pathetically hysterical whimpers I've ever encountered. You might want to acquaint yourself with population trends in the far east. Actually, if you're really concerned about Whitey living long & prosper, you should probably deport all of the Colorado bad boys, with the mandate that they be fruitful & multiply. To maintain a stable population - i.e., no growth or decline, a fertility rate of 2.1 live births per woman is the ratio. 2.1 is what we presently have here in the Land of the Free. Europe as a whole is at 1.38; Russia at 1.14; Canada at 1.48. I'd LOVE to hear your solution to those demographic trends, and how you propose to stem the Anglo shrinkage. stop sep wrote on August 21, 2007 07:15 PM: Sep, I must have really scored some points with my comments, as you have already resorted to name-calling (as liberals usually do when they lack facts). All you need for evidence is to look at the nations of the world and observe the strong correlations between success/low crime rates... and their race. the sad fact is that succesful groups like whites, asians.... will soon become a minority. With that, the other races will not allow them to run the country (look at S. Africa now with the horrible crime and declining economy, poverty....). You are somewhat amusing in your rants however.... too much ganja up there is ski country? A previous poster already showed that your comments about low crime rate in your home state and prevalence of whites demonstrate that you do not possess logic. Therefore, I am done with you. to "d", why don't you search the stats yourself? Try FBI stats, or the 'Bell Curve' (many libs went ape over its data, but they never criticized the data.... they just exploded over the fact that someone finally published it). Mark wrote on August 21, 2007 11:16 AM: Progress would be sending the Africans back to Africa. Joe C wrote on August 20, 2007 11:18 PM: Wow, This is one fun group. I can feel the love coming from everywhere. We can thanks Oscar and the corruption of city leaders for loss of a great city, that was at one time the best place to live. ( a very diversified group of leaders, genders and race) One thing about Sheriff Lamb, in the eighties the hookers practically dragged you out of your car on the strip. Some were really hot, unlike today, not that I would know. Of course it was still better than getting shot. Oh well, that’s progress. Read All Comments