Gunshot in Hotel Room Forces Evacuation at Treasure Island Casino on Las Vegas Strip

Posted on: December 10, 2020, 12:38h. 

Last updated on: December 10, 2020, 01:43h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

Guests were evacuated from the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip early Thursday after gunfire was heard in one of the rooms.

Treasure Island
Police cruisers line up outside Treasure Island on the Las Vegas Strip. Hotel guests were evacuated for several hours on Thursday after gunfire at the resort. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Officer Larry Hadfield of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the gunshot came from a hotel room where a man committed suicide, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The man was not identified.

“SWAT responded, entered the room, and located a male deceased from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Hadfield said.

Police said hotel security reported hearing a gunshot just after midnight in one of the rooms at the resort, also known as the TI. Authorities evacuated dozens of guests for several hours. The police department set up a barricade at the resort, according to KLAS-TV.

Treasure Island is on the west side of the Strip near the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Treasure Island opened in 1993, featuring actors dressed as pirates, battling on pirate ships in a lagoon known as Buccaneer Bay. The performance has since been discontinued.

Hotel Guests on Hold

Jon and Caitlyn Key, visiting from Texas, said Treasure Island employees and police knocked on their door about 2:30 am, telling them to evacuate. Several armed officers were in the hallway.

It was very scary,” Caitlyn Key told the newspaper.

The Keys waited for hours near the elevator in the casino. They were not allowed back in their room to retrieve their belongings to catch a flight. At about 6:30 am, hotel employees brought some of their belongings down to them, according to the Review-Journal.

Another hotel guest, Tiffany Brown, said authorities knocked on her door on the 36th floor.

“All they said is it’s someone with a gun,” the New York resident told the newspaper. “The police said ‘evacuate’ with their guns out.”

Wisconsin resident Donald Thompson and his girlfriend were not allowed back in their room on the 34th floor for security reasons, the newspaper reported. They were given a different room.

Thompson left his girlfriend in the newly assigned room to go downstairs for a moment. However, he was not allowed on the elevator to return to the room because of security precautions. He waited in the casino for hours.

“My girlfriend is up in our new room, and here I am waiting to be allowed back up,” Thompson told the newspaper.

Flamingo Lockdown

The evacuation at Treasure Island is at least the second time in recent months involving a gun incident that kept guests out of their hotel rooms on the Strip for hours.

In September, authorities locked down the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, searching for suspects in a shooting on the sidewalk between the LINQ and Flamingo.

The victim in the shooting was paralyzed. Two suspects later were arrested in California.

The shooting in September was one of several violent incidents on the Strip during the summer and fall.