Court Officer, Suspect Killed in Vegas Courthouse Shootout
Photo from U.S. Marshals Service website.
A shooting suspect and a 65-year-old courthouse security officer are dead after a shootout this morning at the Lloyd D. George U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Las Vegas.
A U.S. deputy marshal was also wounded and emerged from surgery Monday with non-life-threatening injuries, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The names of the officers and the suspect were not released.
The suspect was shot and killed about a block from the courthouse, according to several news reports. The Associated Press says the shooting began in the courthouse lobby. It was carried out by a lone gunman, according to the Review-Journal account.
“It looks like he went in there and just started unloading,” Las Vegas police spokeswoman Barbara Morgan told the Review-Journal. Some witnesses reported hearing at least 30 rounds as officers apparently returned fire.
By the end of the day, the suspect had been identified as Johnny Lee Wicks. Reportedly, he may have been angry over losing a Social Security lawsuit, as detailed in a subsequent ABAJournal.com post.
In a move apparently planned before the shooting, the Department of Justice released a report calling for better protection of federal judges and and prosecutors from a growing number of threats.
The gunman wore a dark trench coat, the New York Times reports.”There was no immediate word on the identity of the suspect, or whether the shooting was a random act of violence, a vendetta or something else,” the Times says. “There was also no initial indication that terrorism was involved.”
Earlier reports had differed on whether the officers shot were federal marshals or FBI agents, or whether one of them was a security guard. Initial coverage on NewsRadio 840 KNXT indicated that two possible shooters were involved, but Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Roxanna Lea Irwin later told the Review-Journal that the suspect was believed to have acted alone.
Police cordoned off the area and evacuated the building, CNN says.
The Las Vegas Sun also had coverage.
A court website for the federal bankruptcy court in Las Vegas said it was closed because of an emergency. The courthouse has 10 courtrooms, as well as offices for U.S. Marshals and the U.S. Attorney, according to Fox5News. It also houses offices for Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign.
Updated at 5:55 p.m. and 6:17 p.m. to include information from subsequent ABAJournal.com posts.
