metro police
In this screen grab from video, an elderly gunman is shown attacking an apartment manager at the Vista Del Valle Apartments, 4051 Viking Road.
Monday, Jan. 6, 2020 | 5:50 p.m.
On footage released Monday, the 93-year-old gunman appeared calm as he terrorized apartment complex employees Thursday morning, shooting one of them in each leg before Metro Police officers, who arrived to find him standing over the wounded man, stopped him.
Having heard the final of three gunshots blasts, a pair of responding officers rushed to the office of the Vista Del Valle Apartments, 4051 Viking Road, and saw Robert Thomas pointing his 9 mm gun at the wounded victim.
That's when Officer Ronald Hornyak, 45, fired a round through the glass door, apparently startling Thomas, who immediately dropped his weapon before he was forcefully placed in custody, according to video broadcast by Clark County Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman.
The victim has since been released from University Medical Center.
Thomas, a resident of the complex, was in the office to complain about flooding in his unit, Zimmerman said.
And the interaction, at least on surveillance video with no sound, appeared normal at first. That’s until Thomas pulled out a gun.
The victim, an office employee, sat down.
Robert Thomas
Soon after, Thomas pulled the trigger for the first time, striking a computer screen on a desk occupied by the male victim and a female office worker.
The woman asked Thomas to let her leave, and he agreed, Zimmerman said. She’s apparently the person who called 911 at 9:10 a.m. to say that there was an armed resident in the office.
Then the second round went off.
The 911 dispatcher heard it, as did the officers who’d arrived at the complex, Zimmerman said.
The victim and Thomas, who suffered a cut when he was being arrested, were both treated at UMC, Zimmerman said.
Thomas, who previously did not have a criminal record, faces counts of attempted murder, kidnapping, burglary while in possession of a gun, discharging a firearm in a prohibited area and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, jail logs show.
