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Recently, an employee entered the parking garage where he worked and killed a security guard.
An employee arrived at his Strip resort employer’s parking lot around 5:45 in the evening. He shot and killed a security guard. Then he shot himself, committing suicide.
The crime occurred at the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore’s garage on Las Vegas Boulevard South.
The shooter, a man in his early 40s, had been absent from his job for a couple of days. He hadn’t notified his supervisor he would be missing.
According to local police, he used his employee key card to enter the parking garage, which notified security. When the security guard approached the suspect’s car in an isolated area on the fifth floor, he was shot several times. Then the suspect exited his vehicle and committed suicide.
No link has been established between the two men. According to police, the investigation is still in its preliminary stages. Neither man has been identified, only that they were Hispanic.
The CEO of Wynn Resorts, Matt Maddox, issued a statement. He wrote that the company had reached out to both men’s families to offer his condolences and provide help during such a difficult time. Mr. Maddox noted he was very distressed by what had occurred.
Murder-suicide rarely garners much media attention, but it results in between 1,000 and 1,500 deaths each year in the United States. A recent study compiled statistics for the first six months of 2019 and found that 620 murder-suicides occurred, in which 340 were homicides and 280 were suicides. Of the 280 suicides, 255 were male while 23 were female and in two cases unknown. Several of these were in Nevada.
These numbers translate to almost 11 such events per week.
What’s uncommon about this event is that murder-suicides are relatively rare when the victim and shooter don’t know each other. Most of the time, it involves an intimate partner, with the man killing his partner.
Several factors lead to murder-suicides. Domestic violence, pending or final divorce, depression, substance abuse, and the strain of providing care for a spouse in poor health all seem to be common reasons for the act. Older couples involved in murder-suicide tend to have medical illnesses. Younger couples often have a history of arguments.
As the statistics above show, often when a suicide-murder occurs, other people are present. This can bring criminal liability under Nevada’s felony murder rule. The allows people to face murder charges if a death occurs during the commission of certain felonies. For example, if you’re robbing a bank with a person, and that person shoots a security guard and then themselves, you could be charged with felony murder.
If you’re involved in a crime with another person, and that person commits murder-suicide during the crime, you could face criminal liability.
If you find yourself in this position, call LV Criminal Defense at 702-623-6362. Our experienced lawyers will protect your legal rights and fight to get your legal charges reduced or dismissed.
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