Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

The reaction: Tourists try to make sense of the violence on the Strip

Strip Shooting at Flamingo

Steve Marcus

Wrecked cars are shown on Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Avenue as Las Vegas Metro Police investigate a shooting and multi-car accident that left three people dead and three injured on the Las Vegas Strip early Thursday morning, Feb. 21, 2013.

Updated Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013 | 1:18 p.m.

At any given time, hundreds of thousands of people are on the Las Vegas Strip, walking around to take in the sights, sleeping in hotel rooms or working in resorts.

Early this morning, some heard the ruckus when a person in a black Range Rover opened fire on a Maserati, sending it crashing into a taxi that burst into flames, leaving three people dead and at least six injured.

Most visitors were asleep at the time but awoke to calls from worried family or friends. A few just happened on the chaos on the street.

Below are some tourists' reactions to the violence on the Strip:

•••

"We could have been the people in the cab. That could have been any tourist. But this kind of thing happens everywhere."

- Rich Tompkins, Mears, Mich.

•••

Rochelle Klingler

Rochelle Klingler

"We could hear the sirens inside New York-New York. We had just gotten back to our hotel room. We didn't think much of it, because you hear sirens in cities all the time. Then we turned on the news."

- Rochelle Klingler; Annapolis, Md.

•••

Ellen Singh

Ellen Singh

"This is something we never see in our country, drive-by shootings on the street. This is a completely different world. We're allowed to have guns in Norway, but it's very restrictive. You can't carry guns on the street, and the police don't carry guns. We're not used to this at all."

- Ellen Singh; Oslo, Norway.

•••

“We’re from L.A., and I won’t say this happens all the time, but it happens often enough that it’s really nothing new. It doesn’t make me feel less safe, because this sort of thing really happens everywhere, and I guess Vegas isn’t immune."

- Greg Tworek, Los Angeles, Calif.

•••

Selena Pratt

Selena Pratt

"I live near Illinois. You see this kind of thing all the time, and we came here to get away from it. We had a hostess with us who just yesterday had said, 'Oh that kind of thing never happens here.'"

- Selena Pratt; Bettendorf, Iowa.

•••

"It's really a common thing, and it's probably going to keep happening until they put a ban on guns. But I feel safer here than I do in Manchester because there are so many more people."

- Jeanette Stone, Manchester, England

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Click to enlarge photo

Zack Vandermyde

“We thought they were filming a movie, because all the streets were shut down. Then we went into the casino and asked a guy what was going on. He said, ‘You don’t want to know.’ Then he said there’d been a shooting, possibly gang related.”

- Zack Vandermyde; St. George, Utah

•••

"I came here 14 years ago and there seemed to be more police. That made me feel a little safer then. There doesn't seem to be as many police around now. I don't think I'd seen one – until today."

- Christopher Stone, Manchester, England

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Click to enlarge photo

Jose Antonio Zepeda

“This is a little different. These things don’t happen in our country. Nobody carries guns, because it’s quite illegal. But in different countries you see different things. This is a shooting in the street. Does this kind of thing happen all the time? It’s quite — impolite.”

- Jose Antonio Zepeda; Chile.

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