Man opens fire in Las Vegas casino, wounding 5

updated 3:15 p.m. ET July 6, 2007

LAS VEGAS - A man on a balcony over the New York-New York casino floor opened fire on the gamblers below early Friday, wounding four people before he was tackled by off-duty military reservists, police said. A fifth person was hurt in a crush of people fleeing the casino.

“It was crazy, pandemonium,” said Jade Jacobson, 28, a tourist from Deland, Fla., whose cousin, a dance teacher from Pennsylvania, was wounded in the leg.

“People were running and jumping over slot machines and knocking over chairs,” Jacobson said. “All I was thinking was that I could die right now.”

Police said 16 shots were fired, and again revised the number of injured in the 12:45 a.m. shooting. All the injuries were described as minor, and none of the victims remained hospitalized Friday morning, authorities said.

Las Vegas police Capt. James Dillon said a woman and a teenage boy were wounded; a man was grazed by a bullet; a woman was hit by a bullet fragment or shrapnel; and a woman was bruised and scraped when she fell amid the crowd of people exiting the casino.

Steven Zegrean, 51, of Las Vegas, was arrested on felony charges including attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm in an occupied structure, Dillon said.

“All we know so far is that he was emotionally distraught,” Dillon said. “I can say with absolute certainty that this has nothing whatever to do with terrorism.”

'Pushing everyone away'
Zegrean emptied a semiautomatic handgun toward the casino floor before he was tackled by a U.S. Army reservist, a Navy reservist and others who held him for police, Dillon said. He said he did not know the names of the people who intervened.

Dillon said police have a casino surveillance video that shows the shooting.

Melody Zegrean, 43, a Las Vegas resident who identified herself as Steven Zegrean’s cousin, said he had been divorced for several years and estranged from most of his family since his ex-wife remarried.

“I love my cousin and everything,” she said, “but his temper and not being able to relate has really gotten worse recently. He’s been threatening the family for some time now. He’s been pushing everyone away.”

She described Steven Zegrean as a Hungarian immigrant and unemployed house painter who liked to gamble.

Troy Sanchez, a 13-year-old from Van Nuys, Calif., who was wounded in the left ankle, said he heard more than 10 gunshots from a balcony over an escalator that takes customers to the casino floor. He was with his mother and older brother, who works at the casino’s Manhattan Express roller coaster.

“We thought it was fireworks,” the teenager said. “I didn’t even see the guy at all.”

MORE FROM CRIME & COURTS

Crime & courts Section Front

Suspect in cop-killings eludes police   Competency hearing begins in Smart case Ex-Ohio autoworker tried for 27,900 deaths Man arrested in Salvation Army kettle theft Crime & courts Section Front   Add Crime & courts headlines to your news reader: