Cesars Palace bicycle security officers are shown near a Metro Police SWAT vehicle at the Caesars Palace delivery dock Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Metro Police were called after a man apparently forced a woman into a hotel room and barricaded himself inside.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023 | 11:52 a.m.
A man jailed on kidnapping and other charges after a Las Vegas Strip standoff where furniture was thrown from a 21st-floor window at Caesars Palace also faces a felony charge as a fugitive from another state, records showed Wednesday.
Matthew John Ermond Mannix, 35, of Golden, Colorado, was arrested after he was accused of taking a woman hostage for more than five hours Tuesday and claiming that he had a gun, according to his police arrest report.
“The male made threats to arriving security (that) ‘if they enter the room he will shoot someone,'” police said, and “advised arriving police officers and security, ‘if you don’t leave it will end badly.'”
Through the door, the woman also told police the man had a knife, the report said.
Police said a knife was found, but did not report finding a gun, and said Mannix identified the woman as his girlfriend. He is scheduled for an initial court appearance Wednesday on felony charges including coercion with the threat of force, destruction of property and resisting arrest.
“When taken into custody, both (Mannix and the woman) were clearly under the influence of narcotics and experiencing drug-induced paranoia,” police said in the report. “It appeared the two ... had binged illegal narcotics for the past several days.”
Details of the fugitive charge were not immediately available, and Officer Robert Wicks, a Las Vegas police spokesman, said he could provide no additional information. The police report said Mannix was the subject of multiple court orders of protection from another person.
A conviction on the kidnapping charge in Nevada carries the possibility of life in prison. Records did not show whether Mannix had a lawyer hired or appointed to his defense.
The woman was not injured and was questioned by detectives, police said.
No other injuries were reported during or after the standoff in a room of a high-rise tower of the flagship Caesars Entertainment Inc. property at the heart of the Las Vegas Boulevard resort corridor.
Guests were evacuated from a swimming pool area below as broken glass, hotel room furniture and items including a coffee maker, hair dryer, pillows and a chair fell from a window about two-thirds up the 29-story Palace Tower. The tower is one of six at Caesars Palace, which has nearly 4,000 rooms.
Hotel employees told a writer with The Associated Press who was staying on the fifth floor that the incident was on the 21st floor and that guests on other floors were not evacuated or restricted from movements.
The writer, John Marshall, said gambling continued uninterrupted in the casino, although hotel security officers and police were visible in the guest valet area.
In a statement following Mannix's surrender to police SWAT officers, Caesars Entertainment referred to the standoff as “a security incident inside a guest room” and credited Las Vegas police and company security officers.
