UPDATE 2: Latest reports are that the dead man worked for the Nathan’s Hot Dog stand in the Luxor, not for the casino itself, and that he was the intended target. Also, the bomb was not in a backpack, it was in — of all things — a cup, indicating it was intended for one person. He picked it up and it went off.
UPDATE: While it’s tragic what happened, the local media reporting on this is becoming more interesting than the event itself. With the lack of details and the way it sounded — backpack bomb goes off in Luxor parking structure — given the national psyche, the first thing that comes to mind is a terrorist suicide bomber that failed. Then it’s reported the bomb went off on top of an employee’s car, killing him, injuring another. Then they said that it wasn’t in a backpack, no confirmation it was an employee who died and it appears to not only not be terrorist related, but a simple murder with an odd weapon. Now it’s back being an employee who died and it was in a backpack. No word on what the security cameras covering the area show.
As a result, what seemed at the time to be of national interest got posted by me as a potentially exclusive story since the national news organizations hadn’t yet reported on it. Turns out it will probably be of minor local interest, noteworthy to the public only in that a bomb was used instead of a gun.
1 Dead in Las Vegas Hotel & Casino Parking Structure Explosion
There was a deadly explosion early Monday morning on the top level of the parking structure located at the Luxor Hotel & Casino. The victim of the bombing was an employee of the Luxor.
The explosion happened around 4 a.m. Reports were that the device was inside a backpack, which was on the vehicle. When the employee went to remove the object, the explosive went off. The employee was taken to the hospital where he died.
Officials say the victim appears to have been the intended target.
The area is completely sealed off. Metro is on the scene. ATF agents have arrived on the scene. There are also two bomb-sniffing dogs inspecting every vehicle.
Luxor Drive is shut down both directions between Mandalay Bay and Reno.
I think you put in the wrong link. Here’s a couple for ya:
ONE
TWO
[Uncle Dave: Fixed — Thanks!]
Love your headline.
Do you think you could have put Al Qaeda in there somehow, just for efffect? Perhaps a photo of Rumsfeld or perhaps Rice?
I feel bad for the guy that was hurt, but using the ‘terrorist’ rubric is both deceiptful and droll.
quick !!! kidnap and torture somebody until they confess that it was an al queda plot!
our families safety relies on the torture of people with suspicious-sounding family names!
It wouldn’t be the first time someone was bombed in Vegas.
What happens in Vegas stay in Vegas … in a million smaller parts apparently, sometimes.
#2 Actually it was one of his better headlines. It was a bomb. It looks like it was in a backpack. It did explode in the parking lot.
What would you have written, TooMuchTravel?
I’m curious as to how they came about the theory that he was the target. Seems they would assume that he was getting the backpack to take it with him and it just blew up.
Terrists! Terrists!
RED ALERT!!!
BATTLESTATIONS!!!!!
As a member of the NBA (National Bomb Association) I believe that if everyone had the right to carry a bomb, incidences like this might be avoided.
I protect my home with a bomb. If someone were to break into my house I would blow them up in self defense.
I bet this can be attributed to gang violence in the area…
are gangs using bombs now? I thought they used guns – held sideways
To #6:
See the other contributions here. Re-evaluate describing this as a ‘terrorist’ event. Look at all of the murders in the area where you live in. Were they terrorist events? Did they strike terror into small feeble minds? I doubt this is the case. Using this logic, consider that the use of ‘terrorist’ in a headline is both shameful, irresponsible, and the hallmark of an insecure pseudo-journalist trying to get attention. Dvorak allows this because his standards are quite low. Sensationalism apparently sells hit counts instead of quality research and reporting.
Don’t worry. Gil Grissom will figure this one out.
Wow CSI Las Vegas is dead on…more people do die weird deaths in Las Vegas than elsewhere….and I thought it was only fiction.
BOOM Shaka-laka BOOM
At least it wasn’t, as Bush says, “nucular.”