The man suspected of shooting a person Sunday inside a southwest valley Starbucks earlier had his payment card declined at the coffee shop’s drive-thru window, police said.
The suspect, a man in his 30s, is in custody, and the person who was shot died about an hour later at Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center, police said.
Police responded to the scene after receiving a report of a shooting at the Starbucks, Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Dan McGrath said during a briefing.
The incident was first treated as a possible hostage situation, but no hostages were taken, police said.
Before the shooting, the suspect had ordered something at the Starbucks’ drive-thru, but his card was declined at the pickup window, McGrath said.
The suspect parked his vehicle behind Starbucks and went inside, where he got into an altercation with a man in his 40s.
He then shot the man at least once in the chest, fired his gun in the air and pointed it at other customers, McGrath said. Twelve to 14 people were inside the Starbucks at the time of the shooting, he said.
The suspect called into Metro’s dispatch line a couple of times and offered a different description of the shooter, McGrath said. He later presented himself to officers as a witness, but police didn’t buy his story and took him into custody at 11:37 a.m., McGrath said.
The suspect also told officers that there was a bomb in an unattended backpack, which prompted a precautionary evacuation of businesses in the strip mall and surrounding area while police checked the scene. No bomb was found, police said; they declared the scene safe at about 2:13 p.m.
Several witnesses identified the man as the shooter, McGrath said.
Since his arrest, the suspect has been uncooperative and has given different versions of what happened and different explanations for why he shot the man, McGrath said.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/developing-one-dead-shooting-las-vegas-area-starbucks
