Police investigating early morning shooting incidents at Rio, near UMC

By Jackie Valley

Published Sunday, March 11, 2012 | 1:54 p.m.

Updated Sunday, March 11, 2012 | 5:48 p.m.

A Metro Police officer fired several shots during an incident early Sunday morning in a Rio parking garage, officials said.

Police said the event happened about 3:51 a.m. as officers working at a scheduled event inside the casino responded to reports of shots fired in the fourth floor of the east parking garage.

Officers arrived to find multiple people — both on foot and in vehicles — firing gunshots while others were attempting to flee.

An officer fired several shots at one suspect during the confrontation. The man was struck, but it’s unclear whether it was the officer’s shots or a result of previous gunfire, police said. The 22-year-old man from North Las Vegas was transported to University Medical Center’s trauma unit with gunshot wounds that were not considered life-threatening, police said.

A 24-year-old Las Vegas man also was transported to UMC’s trauma unit with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, police said. That victim was in a different area of the shooting scene and not injured by gunfire from the officer, police said.

About two hours later, police said a related shooting happened outside UMC.

Officers responded at 5:38 a.m. to reports of shots fired outside the hospital and found two males suffering from gunshot wounds, police said.

Metro’s gang unit and major crimes unit responded to investigate, police said. No suspects had been taken into custody as of Sunday afternoon.

Police have not released additional information.