5 injured in Vegas casino shooting after man opens fire; military reservists tackle him

LAS VEGAS — When a gunman's first shots rang out above the bleeps and blings inside the New York-New York casino, tourists formed a human stampede, jumping over slot machines and knocking over chairs to escape.

Some didn't know if they would: "All I was thinking was that I could die right now," said Jade Jacobson of Deland, Fla.

Outside the casino, flip-flops lay scattered "like people were running out of their shoes," said tourist Larry Ramos of Lansing, Mich.

From a balcony, the gunman fired 16 shots at the casino floor, aiming randomly at families and gamblers as they fled. The gunfire didn't stop until he was tackled by off-duty military reservists, his semiautomatic handgun emptied.

Jacobson's cousin and a teenage boy were wounded in the spree. A man was grazed by a bullet, a woman was hit by a bullet fragment or shrapnel and another woman was bruised and scraped when she fell as the crowd fled the casino.

Steven Zegrean, 51, of Las Vegas, was arrested on felony charges including attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm in an occupied structure, Las Vegas police Capt. James Dillon said.

"All we know so far is that he was emotionally distraught," Dillon said. "I can say with absolute certainty that this has nothing whatever to do with terrorism."

Police said they believed Zegrean entered the casino from a walkway connecting the New York-New York to the MGM Grand, and walked past a vendor and a shop before opening fire around 12:45 a.m. near the top of the bank of escalators.

Police have a casino surveillance video that shows the shooting, Dillon said.

"It seems like some local guy who snapped and went to the hotel to do it," police Officer Ramon Denby said.

Melody Zegrean, 43, a Las Vegas resident who identified herself as Steven Zegrean's cousin, said he had been divorced for several years and estranged from most of his family since his ex-wife remarried.

"I love my cousin and everything," she said, "but his temper and not being able to relate has really gotten worse recently. He's been threatening the family for some time now. He's been pushing everyone away."

She described Steven Zegrean as a Hungarian immigrant and unemployed house painter who likes to gamble.

Troy Sanchez, a 13-year-old from Van Nuys, Calif., who was wounded in the left ankle, said he heard more than 10 gunshots from a balcony over an escalator that takes customers to the casino floor. He was with his mother and older brother, who works at the casino's Manhattan Express roller coaster.

"We thought it was fireworks," the teenager said. "I didn't even see the guy at all."

Sanchez and Jacobson's cousin, who declined to be identified, were treated at University Medical Center in Las Vegas and released. Dillon said both people with graze wounds and the woman who was bruised in the crowd were treated at the scene and released.

The 2,000-room hotel-casino, which opened in 1997, features a facade replicating the New York City skyline, with a 47-story knockoff of the Empire State Building, a 150-foot Statue of Liberty and a Coney Island-style roller coaster. It is owned by MGM Mirage Inc.

Casino spokeswoman Yvette Monet said its operations had been fully restored Friday morning.

"Guests are being informed that it's business as usual," Monet said.

Ramos, 33, said bystanders cheered for the wounded when they were wheeled out of the casino to ambulances, and later talked about the people who tackled the gunman.

"People don't put up with stuff after 9-11 no more," he said, adding that he was surprised that the casino never shut down.

"That's what amazed me," Ramos said. "They locked down the tables, but they let people still keep playing the slots."