One dead after armed man with ‘mental issues’ opens fire on Las Vegas bus before dramatic standoff on casino strip

A man riding on a double decker bus on the Las Vegas Strip pulled a gun and started shooting, killing one person and wounding another before barricading himself inside in a standoff that lasted hours before he finally surrendered.

The standoff began early Saturday on the double-decker bus when it was stopped on Las Vegas Boulevard near the Cosmopolitan hotel-casino.

“He was on the bus. He was shooting people on the bus. He was just contained to that location. He never exited the bus,” Clark County Assistant Sheriff Tom Roberts said.

Two people were taken to the hospital after the shooting, University Medical Centre spokeswoman Danita Cohen said. One died, and the other was in fair condition.

Police said there was no evidence of a terrorism link. Roberts said the suspect appeared to have “mental issues” and “definitely was not really with it”.

For hours, crisis negotiators, robots and armoured vehicles surrounded the bus with authorities uncertain if there were any more victims inside. Meanwhile, officers swept into the casinos to warn tourists to bunker down until further notice, leaving these normally bustling pedestrian areas and a road notorious for taxi-to-taxi traffic completely empty. The Strip, normally crowded with cars and people, was shut down for blocks in both directions.