A police cruiser and an ambulance are staged outside Caesars Palace on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Police said a man took a woman hostage in a hotel room.
Published Tuesday, July 11, 2023 | 11:13 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, July 11, 2023 | 5 p.m.
A man was arrested and a woman described as his hostage was released unharmed Tuesday afternoon after an hourslong standoff in a room at Caesars Palace, Metro Police said.
No injuries were reported and police did not immediately say if the hostage-taker had been armed in the high-rise Palace Tower at the iconic Strip property. Furniture, cushions and other objects fell from a 21st-floor window, frightening guests in a swimming pool area below.
“The suspect has been taken into custody. The female is currently with officers,” Metro said in an email just before 3 p.m. Tuesday. Officer Aden OcampoGomez said the woman did not appear to be injured.
Metro Police Capt. Stephen Connell said the standoff began about 9:15 a.m. with a report from hotel security that a man and woman were arguing and that a man pulled a woman into a room “by force.”
Police SWAT officers secured the hallway outside the room, although Connell said it was not immediately clear if the man was armed.
Connell told reporters during the standoff that the woman believed to be held hostage “has been heard from,” and was believed to be “still OK.”
Outside, guests heard glass break and saw curtains billow from a broken window about two-thirds of the way up the 29-story Palace Tower, one of six towers at the 4,000-room resort.
Eddie Latif and Karina Mauricio, both from Los Angeles, said they had just ordered drinks from a bar at a pool at the resort when all of the lifeguards started blowing their whistles. At first Latif said he thought someone was drowning, but then he noticed everyone looking up. That’s when he saw a man throwing items out of a window.
“He was throwing everything out, end tables, drapes,” Latif said.
Most of the items landed on a roof below the window, he said. Some items made it down to the pool deck.
“It sounded like gunshots,” Latif said about the noise the items made when they landed.
Everyone was quickly evacuated from the pool, many leaving behind items such as shoes and electronics, Mauricio said.
Latif noticed large shards of glass from the broken window on the pool deck as he made his way out of the pool area. He said he helped an employee pick up some of the glass. “I’m glad everyone was safe,” Latif said.
The couple waited for about an hour to get back into the pool before eventually heading back to their room.
Beverly Blackwell of Chattanooga, Tenn., was lounging by a pool with her husband, Chris, when she heard the glass break and saw curtains flutter from the broken window.
“When we saw the window shatter it was kind of a surreal feeling, it got pretty scary,” Blackwell said.
Broken glass and furniture fell intermittently for about an hour, said Associated Press writer John Marshall, who was on vacation with his family in a room on the fifth floor of the Palace Tower.
“It looks like he’s pretty much emptied the room of furniture,” Marshall said of the man police said was barricaded upstairs. Marshall saw seat cushions, a chair and other items hit a ledge outside the window of his room, and said some fell to the pool area after it had been evacuated.
Hotel employees told Marshall and his family that the incident was on the 21st floor and that guests on other floors were not evacuated or restricted from movements.
“In the casino, it’s business as usual,” Marshall said, although hotel security officers and police were visible in the guest valet area.
OcampoGomez, a Metro spokesman, said there were no immediate reports of injuries to anyone in the pool area.
Marshall said he and his family had no initial word from the hotel about what was happening but said they remained in their room as a precaution. Hotel housekeeping staff members were still working in nearby rooms, he said.
Hotel representatives did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment.
