Las Vegas Strip’s Latest Shooting Leaves Man in Critical Condition
Las Vegas NV January 20 2021
A man was hospitalized in critical condition in a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip outside the Venetian Resort on Monday, police said.
The incident began just before 12:20 am when a fight erupted between two groups of men on the casino floor inside the Venetian. Security officers broke up the fight and ordered the men to leave, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The Venetian is on the east side of the Strip where the now-demolished Sands hotel-casino once stood.
Soon after being kicked out, the two groups met up on the Last Vegas Strip outside the Venetian. The four men “immediately began fighting,” Lt. David Gordon told the newspaper.
“During the fight, one of the males started to retrieve a handgun from his waistband,” Gordon said.
The man with the gun and another man began to fight over the firearm, the lieutenant said.
During the struggle, the gun went off, and the victim was shot in the abdomen area,” Gordon said.
The gunman and a second man then crossed the Strip to the west side of the highway. Police took them into custody on the west side at the Treasure Island, a hotel-casino also known as the TI.
An emergency crew took the victim to a local hospital. He was reported in critical but stable condition.
The incident outside the Venetian is the second reported shooting either on or near the Strip since this weekend.
Police on Saturday responded to a call regarding a shooting on the parking lot at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. The call went out just before 3 am. The Rio is an off-Strip resort just west of Caesars Palace.
Officers arrived at the parking lot to discover a man who had been shot at least once. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Authorities said the man was expected to survive.
Police did not immediately identify any suspects or cite a motive for the shooting.
The Rio reopened in December after being closed for nine months. At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) ordered casinos to close statewide. He allowed them to reopen June 4 with capacity restrictions and safety measures in place. Some hotel-casinos opened right away. The Rio is one of the last to reopen.
These shootings since the beginning of the year came only days after Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced it had resolved a spike in crime in the tourist areas “to some extent.” The combined city-county police department is known locally as Metro.
During the final months of 2020, a surge in shootings and other violent crimes on the Strip and nearby tourist areas led to several people being hospitalized.
In response, Metro beefed up its presence in those areas in a program the department called “Operation Persistent Pressure.” The effort was put into place on Friday and Saturday nights from from Sept. 18 to Dec. 20.
During this period, Metro arrested 1,229 people and confiscated 64 guns.
“The spike in crime we saw in our tourist corridor was resolved to some extent,” Capt. Dori Koren said earlier this month. “We made tremendous progress in dealing with the violent crime that you saw in our tourist corridor.”
