Update April 26, 2021: The male suspect in the recent Wild Horse Pass casino shooting is facing charges for first-degree murder and aggravated assault after his arrest late last week. 37-year-old Jonathan Lorenz of Queen Creek, Arizona, reportedly shot at his ex-girlfriend and a 52-year-old man she was allegedly dating, with the latter succumbing to multiple wounds.
Shooting happened around 2:15am Thursday
The latest act of violence in the US-wide trend of casino parking lot or garage shootings has the Gila River Police Department investigating the homicide of an unnamed man at Gila River Hotels & Casinos – Wild Horse Pass in Chandler, Arizona.
ABC 15 Arizona cited police officials as saying the fatal shooting occurred at around 2:15am Thursday at a parking structure near the tribal casino. A male suspect is in custody, the Phoenix-based TV station announced via Twitter:
Police closed down the parking garage while they investigated the scene, although this did not affect casino operations. Of the three people involved in the incident, police say none are from the Gila River Indian Community.
Deceased was shot multiple times
According to Arizona news site atozfamily.com, Gila PD Public Information Officer Ricky Alvarado said officers already on-site ran up from a lower level of the Wild Horse Pass’s parking garage, to arrive at the third-floor scene seconds after the shooting started.
Alvarado said officers saw a man lying on the floor and another man firing shots at a fleeing woman. Police exchanged fire with the shooter before chasing him down on foot and taking him into custody.
The victim died at the scene with police saying the suspect had shot him multiple times. While the suspect required medical treatment at Phoenix metro hospital, neither the officers nor the woman suffered injuries from the incident.
incident was “not a random act of violence”
Detectives are investigating the chain of events leading up to the shooting, although atozfamily.com reports police as believing the incident was “not a random act of violence.”
Another casino parking lot horror show
The fatal shooting at Wild Horse Pass adds another victim to the roster of violent crimes to take place in casino parking lots or garages.
A Detroit man is facing first-degree murder charges after he fired multiple rounds into a victim in the parking lot of MotorCity Casino Hotel in Detroit, Michigan on Sunday, March 21.
Officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Police, meanwhile, found a gunshot victim in the parking bay of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Sin City in January 2021. In February, two men needed emergency medical treatment following a knifing incident in the parking garage of the Nugget Casino in Sparks, Nevada.
Late last year, the parking area of the Tropicana Las Vegas was the scene of a shootout believed to be a drug deal gone south. In October 2020, security officers working for South Point Hotel Casino & Spa shot dead a hostile homeless gunman in the valet area of the Las Vegas property.