A highly disturbing incident took place on Saturday, June 27, roughly 10 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, next to Henderson’s Sunset Station Casino.
According to Henderson police, a woman called the 911 emergency service at 9:38 am to report that her ex-spouse had stolen her car, and that the vehicle was packed with multiple firearms.
The woman also warned the police that the 36-year-old woman had threatened to carry out a mass shooting and commit “suicide by cop.”
Police Used the Car’s GPS Device for Tracking
This prompted the authorities to immediately dispatch officers to the caller’s residence approximately 20 minutes later, where they discovered that the car had a GPS tracker on it.
With the help of the device, they were able to learn that the vehicle was located near Henderson’s Sunset Station Casino, at Warm Springs Road and Stephanie Street.
At 11:17 am, police officers with support from the casino’s security personnel managed to track down the car in the casino’s parking garage. The suspect was blasting loud music and refused to exit when asked, said police.
Officers immediately implemented a coordinated maneuver to block the car with their patrol cars and prevent her from fleeing the scene. Police bodycams showed that the woman asked for water during the negotiations while still inside the car.
Officers at the scene took advantage of the request to work a plan to apprehend the suspect. When she reached for the bottle of water, officers grabbed her hand in an attempt to pull her out of the vehicle, but the woman resisted, and officers were forced to tase her once.
Eventually, police officers were able to remove the suspect from the car and separate her from the weapons she was carrying. When she exited the car, officers noticed the woman had been sitting on a handgun. The back seat also displayed a fully automatic, silenced MP5-style machine gun.
Not Her First Rodeo
After getting in touch with their regional partners at the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center, Henderson police learned that the woman had made a number of similarly disturbing threats in the past, allegedly claiming she wanted to become an active shooter and do a mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Using a search warrant for the stolen car and her home in Henderson, authorities came across a total of 52 firearms as well as hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
While the authorities are still trying to find a reason behind the woman’s gesture, FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Delzotto took the opportunity to praise the quick coordination between local police, LVMPD, and federal agents.
The suspect, whose arraignment has been set for July 1, was taken into the Clark County Detention Center, and she is facing a long list of charges, including an act of terrorism-related threat, assault with a deadly weapon constituting domestic violence, grand larceny, and resisting a public officer with a weapon.
Federal charges have not been filed yet.