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The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 2:35 p.m., Monday, August 6, 2007

Las Vegas police reviewing video in Caesars shooting

Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Police were reviewing casino surveillance videotape and searching Monday for a man suspected of shooting two people following a weekend fistfight in an elevator lobby at the Caesars Palace hotel-casino, authorities said.

Richard Earl Shepherd Jr., 34, of Las Vegas, was identified as the shooter in the early Saturday gunfire that left two men wounded, said Las Vegas police Officer Ramon Denby, a department spokesman.

"We know he's local," Denby said of Shepherd, whose photo from previous arrests was released to the media. "We're talking to his family members. We're hoping that he self-surrenders."

The two wounded men, whose names were not made public, were released from a Las Vegas hospital after treatment of injuries that police said were not life-threatening. One man was wounded in a knee, Denby said, while the other was shot twice in the arm.

The confrontation, which was recorded by security cameras at the Las Vegas Strip casino, came after a man identified as Shepherd was knocked down in a fight with several people near the elevators leading to the parking garage, Denby said.

The videos were considered evidence, and would not be made public, police and casino officials said.

Denby said Shepherd got on the elevator after the fight, went to the third floor and retrieved a gun before returning to the site of the brawl and opening fire as he stepped off the elevator.

The dispute may have occurred after several men made a remark to a woman who was walking with Shepherd, Denby said, adding that the woman is seen on elevator cameras arguing with Shepherd before the shooting.

"He's stewing," said Denby, who said he viewed the video. "It looks like she's telling him, 'Let's just go.' She's trying to tell him, 'No, no, don't do anything."'

Police did not release information about Shepherd's arrest history. Officers were investigating whether the fight may have been gang-related, Denby said.

The shooting was the second inside a Las Vegas Strip casino in the last month.

A man police described as emotionally troubled opened fire July 6 inside the New York-New York casino, wounding four people.