A gunman wearing a helmet and carrying an "AR-15 style rifle" was caught on camera at the entrance of an upscale Las Vegas apartment complex before an armed employee of the building opened fire and stopped him in his tracks.
Questions on how the incident played out remained unanswered for days as media coverage was minimal despite the worker having foiled what appeared to be a mass shooting attempt, Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Amy Swearer claimed.
"Normally when you have some sort of video like this, especially when it's what appears to be an active shooting situation, that's something that makes national news. I've never seen that not pick up steam of some sort," Swearer told Fox News Digital. At about 3:15 pm Friday, June 23, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department received a call regarding a shooting at Turnberry Towers Las Vegas, which is located about a 10-minute walk from the Strip.
The suspect, identified as Andrew Warrender, walked toward the main lobby of the apartment complex at 3:13 p.m., according to the arrest report citing surveillance footage, and allegedly shot his weapon at an employee. He attempted to fire another shot but appeared to have a malfunction. He aimed his weapon again at the employee, but no bullet was discharged.
Warrender then walked toward the front entrance to leave the apartment complex, but was shot by the employee. The employee held Warrender at gunpoint with his Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun until police arrived, saying he "felt everyone's life in the area was in danger" and "he used deadly force to protect innocent citizens."
Information on the case, however, was scarce between June 23 until June 28. There were bare-bones news articles immediately after it happened, reporting that two people were involved in a shooting and the public was not in immediate danger.A couple of local outlets that reported a "hero" employee thwarted the suspect relied on witness testimony as police didn't confirm the details. The police department additionally did not confirm to The Daily Signal on June 27 if a "hero" with a gun thwarted the shooting.
"I could understand why there's not this immediate asking of questions… it's just sort of ‘Move along,’ but the question becomes: Why are the police framing it that way?" Swearer said. "And maybe they don't know, but it seems pretty clear that by the next day, when you see this video start coming out, it seems very clear that there's something else going on here."The report confirmed that an employee of Turnberry Towers who worked both security and deliveries shot Warrender and was not a suspect in the case. His name was redacted from the reports reviewed by Fox News Digital.Swearer said in a Twitter thread on June 27, before the arrest report was reported, that it appeared the police department wanted to downplay the crime as to not highlight that a "good guy with a gun" prevented a tragedy.
"Four days, and LVPD apparently doesn't think it's important to clarify basic facts of an incident that would probably garner national attention. They'd prefer you just move along, folks, because what does it matter if a good guy with a gun saved lives?," Swearer wrote.
