Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Suspect in office shooting had long-running worker compensation claim

Leonard Sullivan

AP Photo/Metro Police

This Monday, Oct. 13, 2014, photo shows suspect Leonard Sullivan, 73, who is held by jail officers during his booking photo session at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas. Police arrested Sullivan in the shooting that left Michael Kogler wounded in a first-floor lobby of a building housing a Nevada agency that handles disabled worker claims and hearings. Police say Sullivan refused to cooperate with jail officers taking his booking photo.

Updated Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014 | 3:52 p.m.

Police say a 73-year-old Las Vegas man arrested after a shooting in a lobby of a building housing a Nevada agency had a long-running worker compensation claim and appeared to have waited for the hearing advocate who was shot.

Witnesses and a security guard told police they disarmed Leonard Sullivan after the 9 a.m. Monday shooting outside the Nevada Attorney for Injured Workers office, several blocks west of the Las Vegas Strip.

A police report says Michael Kogler was hospitalized after being shot once in the chest, but is expected to survive.

Police say Kogler and others identified Sullivan as Kogler's assailant, and Kogler told police he knew Sullivan from a 2003 compensation claim filed after Sullivan said he tripped over a luggage cart at a Las Vegas hotel.

Kogler said he worked with Sullivan 10 years ago for MGM Mirage, where Kogler was a claims adjuster, according to the police report.

Sullivan yelled out Kogler's name before he shot him with a Smith & Wesson handgun, the report said.

A security guard reported that after being detained, Sullivan told him he planned to put the gun into his mouth, according to the report.

Police received a call the day before the shooting from from an acquaintance who said Sullivan had made suicidal remarks, the report said.

Sullivan was arrested and booked at the Clark County Detention Center on a count of attempted murder.

Sun reporter Pashtana Usufzy and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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