Shooting at Nevada Casino Leaves Woman Hospitalized, Boyfriend Behind Bars

Posted on: December 20, 2020, 03:08h. 

Last updated on: December 20, 2020, 04:01h.

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

A woman was hospitalized after sustaining injuries in a shooting at a Laughlin, Nevada, casino this weekend. A man identified as her boyfriend was taken into police custody, authorities said.

Aquarius Laughlin
Police respond to an incident at the Aquarius hotel-casino in Laughlin, Nevada, in 2019. The resort was the site this week of a shooting in one of the hotel rooms, police said. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal)

The incident occurred before 7:20 am on Sunday in a hotel room at the Aquarius Casino Resort, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The shooting allegedly happened during a struggle inside the hotel room. The woman’s boyfriend was arrested at the site without incident, the newspaper reported.

Police in Bullhead City, Arizona, notified Nevada authorities that the woman was recovering in a hospital there. The names of the suspect and victim were not immediately released, and the woman’s injuries were not revealed. Also a mystery is how she managed to get to Bullhead City from the Laughlin area.

Laughlin is about 95 miles south of Las Vegas on the Arizona border. The Colorado River separates Nevada and Arizona. Bullhead City is on the east side of the river, across from Laughlin.

Laughlin is in Clark County, which gives the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department jurisdiction in that area at the southern tip of the state. The combined-city county police department, known locally as Metro, is overseen by an elected sheriff.

On its website, the Aquarius bills itself as the “largest 24-hour gaming resort in Laughlin.”

In August 2019, police shot and killed an armed man in the Aquarius parking lot after he had attempted to rob a cashiers’ cage inside the casino.

Las Vegas Shooting Death

The shooting on Sunday at the Aquarius is the second this weekend inside a hotel room at a Southern Nevada casino.

A man in his early 30s was found dead after gunfire late Friday inside a room in a hotel tower at the Strat Hotel, Casino, and SkyPod. The Strat is at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, just inside city limits.

Police said the shooting happened during an “altercation” at a birthday party in the hotel room. Several people fled the room after the shooting, according to authorities.

Metro homicide officers and hotel security were reviewing surveillance video this weekend to determine the suspect’s movements, police said.

Sexual Assault

A second Laughlin casino was in the news recently when police arrested a man on suspicion of a sexual assault that reportedly took place 25 years ago.

The suspect was taken into custody in Las Vegas last week in a case dating back to a high school graduation party in 1995.

A juvenile female reported drinking and passing out at the party in a room at Harrah’s Laughlin Hotel and Casino. She was moved to a different room. When she awoke, she determined, based on evidence at the site, that a sexual assault had occurred, the newspaper reported.

Years later, the suspect sent the woman a Facebook friend request, according to the newspaper. The woman’s mother replied, “Why would you contact my daughter after what you did to her?”

A DNA analysis last year matched the suspect’s DNA, police said.