Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sense of normalcy returns to Excalibur after shooting

Excalibur2

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In a Dec. 14, 2012, file photo, Metro Police officers stand watch outside the entrance to the Excalibur after a shooting near the registration desk left two dead.

Updated Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 | 4:52 p.m.

Excalibur shooting

KSNV reports on a shooting in Excalibur that left two people dead, Dec. 15.

On Saturday, a note on the concierge desk at Excalibur said it would reopen Sunday. It was among the only visible evidence remaining from a shooting that killed two people there Friday night.

The yellow police tape and black curtains that hid the man, dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, are gone. The casino carpeting in the area looks like normal. Everything else is business as usual. Tourists walk around with yard-long margaritas and bottles of Corona, checking into the hotel, hitting the casino.

But the events that had unfolded were still on the minds of many tourists at the casino.

“It is the talk of the town around here,” said Mary Wiley, who is visiting from Bakersfield, Calif., and is staying at the hotel.

On Friday night, a man had walked into the Excalibur and killed 30-year-old Jessica Kenny. She was working at the concierge desk as a vendor for travel website VEGAS.com, which is owned by the Greenspun family, publishers of the Sun. The man then turned the gun on himself.

On Saturday, words like “shooting” and “blood” could be heard from tourists as they walk past the desk. Tourist Jay Webster said everyone seems to have a story claiming they saw the shooting and describing what happened.

Webster said he and his friends had just pulled up to the hotel to check in when the shooting occurred. They first thought it was a robbery, but later learned what happened. They walked past the site around 3 a.m., where they saw fans blowing over a portion of roped-off carpet, where the body had been.

Despite the incident, Webster said there was still a long line to check into the hotel. The shock and fear from the incident almost deterred them from staying, but a free room upgrade changed their minds.

Wiley said she and her friends and family had no concerns about staying at the hotel.

“We still feel safe, just knowing that it was an isolated incident between those two,” Wiley said. “It still feels safe to us.”

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