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CNN Saturday Morning News

Four Dead, Six Injured in Shooting in a Nevada Casino

Aired April 27, 2002 - 08:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the latest now on reports of a shooting at a casino in Nevada. It happened in the city of Laughlin. As we told you, that's about 70 miles south of Las Vegas.

Bullhead City Fire Department spokesperson Larry Tunforss joins us by phone again with an update.

Larry, since the last time we spoke, any new information? Could you just update us?

LARRY TUNFORSS, BULLHEAD CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, Kyra, basically the Bullhead City Fire Department transported people from the incident scene in Laughlin to Western Arizona Regional Medical Center. That's the closest medical facility to Laughlin and to Harris Laughlin.

We transported a total of six people by ground ambulance. One person was airlifted from the scene to a Las Vegas hospital in extremely critical condition. There were four dead at the scene. I just left the Western Arizona Regional Medical Center a few moments ago, where there are two people there that are being prepared to be flown out. They are both listed as what we call level one condition, most critical, and they were identified to me as the two shooters.

The hospital in Bullhead City is under tactical alert, basically, you might say. The SWAT team is everywhere. This does appear to be gang related and so all precautions are being taken to prevent anything else from happening.

PHILLIPS: Now, when you say gang related, we were reading that this might have involved members of the Hells Angels motorcycle group. Is that what you're talking about?

TUNFORSS: I don't have any names of any groups to identify them. Those threats were made earlier in the week. They've been made every year for several years. This is the first time we've actually had a shooting of any nature.

PHILLIPS: Any word on a motive?

TUNFORSS: I couldn't begin to, you know, they're rival gangs so it could have been a hair out of place. Who knows?

PHILLIPS: That's true. You never know what triggers it. All right, now, you -- there's the river run is taking place there, right, and this is a popular event. It brings in a lot of motorcycle enthusiasts.

TUNFORSS: It's an annual event. This is the 20th annual event. It's hosted by a promoter. All the casinos are involved. There's nine hotel casinos in Laughlin. They're all involved in it. There's probably anywhere, I mean it depends upon who you talk to, from 50,000 to 80,000 motorcycles in Laughlin at this point in time.

PHILLIPS: All right, and Harris Castro, does it remain closed, Larry?

TUNFORSS: I believe all the casinos are locked down right now. Even employees cannot get to the casinos to go to work right now until the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has a good handle on this.

PHILLIPS: All right, Larry Tunforss, Bullhead Fire Department.

Thanks again, Larry. We'll check in with you later.

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