Would-Be Mass Shooter Taken Out By Armed Las Vegas Man

Several tentative reports out of Las Vegas, Nevada, and somewhat partial data from the Las Vegas Metro Police have formed a frustratingly incomplete description of a Friday shooting where details are scant but one thing is certain: an armed, good samaritan undoubtedly prevented a mass shooting.

According to KTNV-Channel 13, an unnamed resident at the Turnberry Towers called an also unidentified building employee a hero after he allegedly dispatched a mass-shooter armed with what was described as an AR-15 among other weapons. 

The outlet reported, "According to the resident, a man wearing a helmet had an AR-15 and other weapons when he entered the towers Friday afternoon."

They added that the resident described the man in the helmet firing shots at the front desk shattering glass nearby. The witness said an employee of the towers stopped the attack and thinks they are a hero deserving of recognition.

KLAS, 8 News Now reported that the "unidentified person" shot in the incident was taken to a nearby hospital and as of Friday was listed in critical condition.

A resident, Mr. Benjamin Teal, told the outlet that a valet attendant might have saved his life by telling him to leave, warning him of the dangerous situation unfolding.
 

“My valet comes out waving his arms saying, ‘There is a guy with a gun, turn around and go the other way,’ and so we go down to the basement the first level where the valet parking is and then we heard about six to seven or eight gunshots,” Teal told KLAS. “It was pretty distinguishable to be a gunshot.”

Lt. Noe Esparza of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department seemed to downplay the incident to the news outlet.

"I want to dispel any reports of any active assailant or any active shooter situations, that was not the case here today," Esparza said.
"The community is safe, this appears to be an isolated incident."

The move by LVMPD to "downplay" the shooting was strenuously objected to in a lengthy Twitter thread by Senior Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation Amy Swearer.

She observed,

 "It's indisputable that an armed civilian stopped an active shooter last week. You almost certainly haven't heard about it. Why?

Because Las Vegas Police have gone out of their way to downplay it, while the media have shown basically zero interest."

Swearer explained, "Last Friday, LVPD responded to a shooting at a luxury condo just off the Las Vegas strip. The initial reporting on it looked generally like this: Two people involved. One shot and injured. That's it. Pretty standard crime, right?" Adding, "The next day, some follow up reports started hinting that something more complex may have happened. We find out that a "gunman" fired shots into the apartment complex lobby, and was "stopped" by a hero employee."

When Swearer and her team at The Daily Signal, Heritage's arm for reportage tried to dig into the story, they were reportedly hit with a journalistic brick wall from LVMPD, a demand for a Freedom of Information Act  request due to the cases's status as an "open investigation."
 

Their response?

FOIA it. It's an active investigation.

I'm dead serious.

They refused to simply state the obvious - an armed civilian thwarted an active shooter.

— Amy Swearer (@AmySwearer) June 27, 2023

As Swearer would go on to explain to Twitter, footage of the incident quickly leaked to the internet where it was shared on Twitter by former police officer, SWAT team member, and Navy veteran Cody Garrett, who hosts the popular YouTube Channel Donut Operator, featuring educational, police-related content.

Contrary to Lt. Esparza's statement Garrett characterized the man in the helmet as an "active shooter," albeit the "Worst active shooter ever."

Garrett described the outcome of the shooting saying, "Dude gets lit up immediately after shooting out the glass doors and entering Turnberry Towers in Las Vegas."
 

Worst active shooter ever.
Dude gets lit up immediately after shooting out the glass doors and entering Turnberry Towers in Las Vegas.
pic.twitter.com/syz3oqjeSA

— Donut Operator 🍩 (@DonutOperator) June 27, 2023

Swearer summed the situation up as an expert litigator should on closing arguments, "Look at the Greenwood mall shooting or the White Settlement Church shooting - within 24 hours we absolutely knew that an armed civilian intervened. As we should. But LVPD has gone so far as to lead media to believe, four days later, that there's nothing to see here."
 

"Four days, and LVPD apparently doesn't think it's important to clarify basic facts of an incident that would probably garner national attention. They'd prefer you just move along, folks, because what does it matter if a good guy with a gun saved lives?"

As of this report, the only information provided publicly by the LVMPD is a single tweet reading, "At approximately 1:15 pm, LVMPD received a call of a shooting in the 300 block of Karen Avenue. When officers arrived, they located a subject suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Medical has transported the subject to UMC Trauma. This is an ongoing investigation."

At approximately 1:15 pm, LVMPD received a call of a shooting in the 300 block of Karen Avenue. When officers arrived, they located a subject suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. Medical has transported the subject to UMC Trauma. This is an ongoing investigation.

— LVMPD (@LVMPD) June 23, 2023

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