A gunman wearing a helmet and carrying an “AR-15 rifle” was caught on camera at the entrance of a luxury Las Vegas apartment complex before an armed employee of the building opened fire and stopped him.
Questions about how the incident played out went unanswered for days as media coverage was minimal, despite the employee foiling an apparent mass shooting, said Amy Swearer, senior legal officer for the Heritage Foundation.
“Normally when you have a kind of video like this, especially when it seems to be an active shooting situation, that’s something that makes national news. I’ve never seen that not get some sort of steam,” Swearer told Fox News Digital.
“What’s bizarre here is the hand waving, ‘There’s nothing to see here. Carry on, people,'” Swearer continued.
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The towers at Turnberry Place are viewed in an empty Convention Center parking lot on October 25, 2011 in Las Vegas. (Getty Images)
At about 3:15 p.m. on Friday, June 23, the Las Vegas Police Department received a call about a shooting at Turnberry Towers Las Vegas, about a 10-minute walk from the Strip.
The suspect, identified as Andrew Warrender, walked into the apartment complex’s main lobby at 3:13 p.m., according to the arrest report citing surveillance footage, and allegedly fired his gun at an employee. He tried to fire another shot, but it turned out to be malfunctioning. He aimed his gun at the employee again, but no bullet was fired.
Warrender then walked to the main entrance to leave the apartment complex, only to be shot by the employee. The employee held Warrender at gunpoint with his Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol until police arrived, saying he “felt the lives of everyone in the area were in danger” and “he used deadly force to protect innocent civilians “.
However, information about the case was sparse between June 23 and June 28. There were bare-bones news articles immediately after it happened, reporting that two people were involved in a shooting and that the public was not in immediate danger.
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Las Vegas is one of the most popular travel destinations for summer 2023 travel. (iStock)
A few local outlets that reported a ‘hero’ employee thwarting the suspect relied on witness testimony, as police did not confirm the details. Police also did not confirm to The Daily Signal on June 27 whether a “hero” with a gun foiled the shooting.
“I could understand why questions aren’t being asked immediately… it’s just kind of a ‘Come along’, but the question becomes, why are the police presenting it that way?” said Zwer. “And maybe they don’t know it, but it seems pretty clear that the next day when you see this video come out, it seems very clear that something else is going on here.”
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“And even then with these sequels, even in the media itself, you still have the frame of ‘Oh, well, he just quit. A heroic employee who did this hero thing that we won’t get into.” details about it,” Swearer said.
Swearer said the video of Warrender circulating online has the hallmarks of a planned mass shooting. It remains unclear what the shooter’s motives or intentions were.
“In general, if you have someone in a public place with a gun, just starting to shoot, not at a specific person … it’s like shooting at glass doors,” she said. That has all the hallmarks… of someone who is out to commit serious violence against more than one person.”
Swearer said “normally” when video circulates of a person in a public place holding a gun, it is “national news”.
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“I’ve never seen that not pick up steam,” Swearer said.
For example, other cases where an armed civilian thwarted an active shooter have received significant attention in the past, including last summer when Indiana’s Elishsha Dicken shot a mass shooter at a mall, preventing further loss of life.
Police confirmed that a “Good Samaritan” foiled the shooting just hours after it unfolded, and the story dominated headlines for days. That case was different from the Las Vegas one, as four people, including the shooter, died.
On June 28, local outlets and Fox News Digital were able to get more information about the case as police began releasing Warrender’s arrest report.
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The report confirmed that a Turnberry Towers employee who worked security as well as deliveries shot Warrender and was not a suspect in the case. His name was redacted from the reports reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The unidentified employee told police that at about 2:50 p.m. on the day of the shooting, a hotel valet employee warned him that Warrender was “about to point a firearm at him.” The armed guard who thwarted the suspect told police he is not asked to carry a firearm while on duty, but “chooses to do so of his own free will”. The employee carried the Smith & Wesson in a holster around his waist with extra ammunition, the report said.
A Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol on display at the National Rifle Association’s 132nd Annual Meeting. (Reuters)
Police said the employee “fired 12-13 rounds at Warrender causing him to fall and drop the gun,” according to the arrest report. Warrender was eventually arrested and transported to a nearby hospital for his injuries.
The suspect was also known to the employees of the apartment complex, as he regularly stayed with his uncle who lived there. On the day of the shooting, associates reported to police that Warrender “didn’t act like his normal self” and had “a blank stare” when he was on the apartment grounds.
Investigators initially believed that Warrender had injured his uncle prior to the shooting, but upon investigation found an empty apartment. They did find an empty black suitcase in the bedroom, which allegedly contained the rifle.
Global Courant
Swearer said in a Twitter thread on June 27, before the arrest report was reported, that it appeared police wanted to downplay the crime so as not to emphasize that a “good guy with a gun” prevented a tragedy.
“Four days, and LVPD apparently don’t care about clarifying the basic facts of an incident that would likely get national attention. They’d rather you just keep going, folks, because who cares if a good guy with a gun lives saved?” Swearer wrote.
Warrender was charged with attempted murder, two counts of assault with the use of a deadly weapon, and illegal firing of a gun.
Las Vegas gunman stopped probable mass shooter in his tracks, but got little attention: expert
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