A gunman wearing a helmet and carrying an “AR-15-style rifle” was caught on camera at the entrance to a luxury apartment complex in Las Vegas before an armed employee of the building opened fire and stop him in his tracks.
Questions about how the incident unfolded remained unanswered for days as media coverage was minimal even though the worker had thwarted what appeared to be an attempted mass shooting. Amy Swearer, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said.
“Normally when you have any kind of video like this, especially when it’s what appears to be an active shooting situation, that’s something that makes national news. I’ve never seen one that wasn’t taken advantage of in some way,” Swearer told Fox News Digital.
“What’s strange here is the hand waving, ‘There’s nothing to see here.’ Keep going, people,” Swearer continued.
Around 3.15pm on Friday 23 June Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department He received a call about a shooting at Turnberry Towers Las Vegas, which is about a 10-minute walk from the Strip.
The suspect, identified as Andrew Warrender, walked into the main lobby of the apartment complex 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 seemed to malfunction.
He pointed the gun at the employee again, but no shots were fired.
Warrender headed toward the front entrance to leave the apartment complex, but the employee was shot.
The employee held Warrender at gunpoint with his Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun until police arrived, saying he “felt everyone’s life in the area was in danger” and “used deadly force to protect innocent citizens”.
Information about the case, however, was scarce between June 23 and 28.
Immediately after it happened, there were simple news articles, reporting that two people were involved in a shooting and the public was not in immediate danger.
A pair of local outlets that reported a “hero” employee were frustrated that the suspect was based on witness testimony, as police would not confirm the details.
The police department also would not confirm to The Daily Signal on June 27 whether a “hero” with a gun foiled the shooting.
“I could understand why there’s not that immediate question… it’s just kind of ‘Move on,’ but the question becomes: Why are the police bringing it up like that?” the juror said. “And maybe they don’t know it, but it seems clear that the next day, when you see that video start to come out, it seems very clear that there’s something else going on.”
“And even with these follow-up stories, even within the media itself, you still have this framing of ‘Oh, well, he stopped it. A hero employee who did this hero thing about we’ll get into details,” Swearer said.
Swearer said the video of Warrender that has circulated online bears the hallmarks of a planned mass shooting.
It is still unclear what the shooter’s motives or intentions were.
“Generally speaking, when you have someone in a public space with a rifle, who just starts shooting, not at a specific person … it’s like shooting through glass doors,” he said. “This has all the hallmarks … of someone who is bent on a serious form of violence against more than one person.”
Swearer said that “typically” when a video circulates of a person in a public place holding a rifle, it makes “national news.”
“I’ve never seen it not pick up steam of some kind,” Swearer said.
Other cases in which an armed citizen thwarted an active shooter, for example, have received widespread attention in the past, including last summer when Indiana man Elisjsha Dicken shot a mass shooter at a mall, avoiding further loss of life.
Police confirmed that a “good Samaritan” thwarted the shooting just hours after it unfolded, and the story dominated news headlines for days.
This case was different from Las Vegas, as four people, including the shooter, died.
On June 28, local media and Fox News Digital were able to learn more about the case when police began releasing Warrender’s arrest report.
The report confirmed that a Turnberry Towers employee who worked in both security and deliveries shot Warrender and was not a suspect in the case.
His name was redacted from reports reviewed by Fox News Digital.
The unidentified employee told police about 2:50 a.m the day of the shooting, a hotel employee alerted him that Warrender was “about to point a firearm at him”.
The armed security guard who thwarted the suspect told police he is not required to carry a firearm while on the job, but “chooses to do so of his own free will.”
According to the report, the employee had the Smith & Wesson in a holster on his waist with additional ammunition on his person.
Police said the employee discharged “12 to 13 rounds at Warrender causing him to fall and drop the rifle,” the arrest report states.
Warrender was eventually arrested and transported to a nearby hospital for his injuries.
The suspect was also known to employees at the apartment complex as he often stayed with his uncle who lived there.
The day of the shootingemployees noted to police that Warrender was “not acting like himself” and had “a blank stare” when he was on the apartment property.
Investigators initially thought Warrender had wounded his uncle before the shooting, but after investigating they found an empty apartment.
They found an empty black case in the main room, which apparently contained the rifle.
Swearer said in a Twitter thread on June 27, before the arrest report was reported, that it appeared the police department wanted to play down the crime by not highlighting that a “good guy with a gun” prevented a tragedy
“Four days and LVPD apparently doesn’t think it’s important to get the basic facts straight about an incident that would likely garner national attention. They’d rather you move on, folks, because what does it matter if a good guy with a gun saves lives? Swearer wrote .
Warrender was charged with attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful discharge of a weapon.
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