Excitement in Las Vegas

[Burdar]

Early Saturday morning, a group of people robbed a high end jewelry store in the Bellagio hotel.  Later on in the morning, one tourist was killed when someone opened fire on a bus in front of the Cosmopolitan.  The two hotels are right next to each other.  A large portion of the strip was closed for about 4 hours during the standoff.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/pig-mask-suspect-arrested-las-vegas-jewelry-store-heist-article-1.3011433

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/montana-man-identified-las-vegas-strip-shooting-victim-46386239

Julie and I were there from Thursday-Monday.  We were walking through an aquarium exhibit at the Mandalay Bay when the shooting happened so we weren't there initially. After the aquarium, we started walking down the strip to find something to eat.  That's when we saw the strip blocked off.  We got up as close as we could to try and see what was going on.  That's when we started hearing rumors about a shooting and standoff.  We were standing on a walking bridge just above where the news vans were stationed when we heard(and felt) an explosion.  I assumed it was a some type of concussion grenade to incapacitate the suspect.

After the suspect was taken into custody, they reopened the northbound lanes of the strip but the southbound lanes were closed until around midnight Saturday.

[Cuda Cody]

   That's a little to close for comfort!  Glad you're okay.

[Rev-It-Up]

Geez!! Glad you two were not involved. I don't think I would have "got up as close as we could"...in today's society, I would be headed the other direction! This world is a crazy place!

[J-Code Jeni]

How scary! Now that you say that, I've always felt safe in Vegas & hope these are isolated incidents.

Glad you & Julie are okay.

[Burdar]

I'm pretty sure they had two blocks shut down to automotive traffic in either direction. Pedestrian traffic was restricted one block in each direction. Most people were going about their normal activities at the businesses that were still accessible. A few people decided to walk past the tape and they were quickly escorted back. We weren't in any danger where we were. The grenade blast was pretty loud though. I can't imagine how that would have felt inside the bus.

[Brads70]

Wow that's crazy! Glad your both OK! 

[XeGnome]

This world is a crazy place!

That's why we vacation in reciprocity states.