Guest killed after tackling gunman at nightclub; 2 security officers wounded
October 21, 2013A Las Vegas Strip nightclub patron was shot dead early this morning after he tackled and wrestled with an armed, disgruntled patron who had just shot two security officials at Drai’s nightclub, Metro Sheriff Doug Gillespie said.
At an afternoon news conference at Metro headquarters, Gillespie identified the suspect as Benjamin Frazier, 41, Las Vegas.
Gillespie filled in some details of the shooting, which remains under investigation:
Frazier wanted to look around in Drai’s, which operates as an after-hours club, to determine if he wanted to stay before paying a cover charge. After looking around, Frazier decided to pay the cover and enter the club.
Shortly thereafter, Frazier got into an argument with security officials.
Gillespie said Frazier pulled out a handgun and shot one security official in the arm. A second security guard ran up and was shot in the stomach.
At that point, a patron leaving the club saw what was happening and tackled Frazier in an attempt to subdue him. Frazier fought back and fired his gun several times, hitting the patron and killing him, Gillespie said.
Frazier ultimately was subdued by security officers and held for police by hotel security.
The wounded were taken to University Medical Center. No information on their conditions was immediately available.
Frazier, who suffered a head injury during the struggle to subdue him, also was taken to UMC. He was booked in absentia into Clark County Detention Center on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Frazier has a history of legal trouble involving alcohol establishments, police said. In 1996, he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon in an incident at a local nightclub. In 2012, he agreed to plead guilty to battery, was placed on six months of probation and ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings for six months, court records show.
In a statement, Bally’s owner Caesars Entertainment said Drai’s and Bally’s were “actively supporting the efforts of law enforcement.”
“The safety and security of our guests is our number one priority,” the statement said. “Drai’s After Hours and Bally’s Las Vegas extend deepest sympathies to those injured by the shooter.”
It was just after 9:30 a.m. when Bally’s guests Kris and Art Psiurski noticed yellow police tape around several rows of slot machines outside Drai’s.
They later learned what happened when someone in the casino asked, “You hear about the shooting?”
The Psiurskis, visiting from Alberta, Canada, didn’t, but the news was chilling.
“That’s Vegas,” said Kris Psiurski, 63. “Where we come from, people don’t get shot in public very often.”
The was her first visit to Las Vegas in three decades.
Hotel guest Steve Pratt thought about how close he had been to where the shooting took place when he walked past police standing guard. Past the tape, he could see numbered cards used for marking bullet casings outside the club doors.
When his friends retired upstairs to their room, Pratt, a 45-year-old Indiana native, decided to hit the slots. He sat down at a machine with a clear view of the club, but went to bed before the shooting.
“I was sitting right there,” Pratt said, showing his friends. “That could’ve been me.”
Just before 11 a.m., crime scene investigators toting brown paper evidence bags left the scene.
Surrounded by uniformed Metro Police officers and detectives, maintenance workers wearing blue rubber gloves cut out a large square from the casino’s carpet, catching the attention of passing guests.
Gambling continued in the casino after the shooting, but yellow crime-scene tape stretched around several banks of slot machines outside the nightclub. Debris littered the floor as uniformed casino and police officers investigated.
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