“Work Accident” in….Las Vegas?
AP via MSNBC: 1 dead, 1 hurt in Las Vegas parking lot blast
Explosion occurs in parking garage behind Luxor hotel-casino
KLAS-TV Las Vegas: 1 Dead in Luxor Parking Structure Explosion
There was a deadly explosion early this morning on the top level of the parking structure located at the Luxor Hotel. The victim of the bombing was an employee of the Luxor. Another person was injured.
The explosion happened around 4 a.m. Reports were that the device was inside a backpack, which was either on the vehicle or adjacent to it.
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.
Captain Ed Points Out That Today is May 7th and London’s 7/7 Bombings Employed Exploding Backpacks
Michelle Malkin Reminds Us That Terrorist Surveillance Videos of the Luxor Were Found in 2004 and the 9/11 Hijackers Visited Las Vegas Several Times.
After 9-11, I began to wonder if we’d see the sort of suicide attacks we routinely hear about in Israel, where Palestinian terrorists put explosives in their backpacks and kill people in crowded restaurants, buses, etc. – the kind of backpack attacks that happened in London on 7/7/05, which killed over 50 people. I used to actually get nervous if I saw a Muslim walk into a restaurant I was eating in with a backpack.I hope that the incident in Vegas is isolated and not part of a coordinated plan for future attacks of this nature.
I guess we should get something up about this. Early reports were of a man being killed when a device in his backpack went off in the Luxor parking lot; new reports claim that it wasn’t a backpack and that it wasn’t even his. Apparently it was left on top of his car, and when he and a fellow employee got off work shortly after 4 a.m. and investigated, boom.Anyway:
Police say the blast was not a terrorist act, but an apparent slaying with an unusual murder weapon…There’s not much damage around the vehicle — and the hotel and casino were not evacuated.
Figure a disgruntled gambler with a grudge against the casino or maybe mafia/bookie justice for a bad debt. The unusual hour, location, and low intensity of the explosion makes it an unlikely candidate for jihad unless it’s of the freelance variety, and even then, why wouldn’t the perpetrator have walked into the casino and set it off there to maximize casualties?
MM has excellent background on terrorist interest in Vegas, though.
Update: The cops suspect the victim was the intended target.
20 Responses to ““Work Accident” in….Las Vegas?”
Why is this tagged under terrorism? Bombings are always terrorism, I think not.
True Rudi.
If it was terrorism, it was at at competence level rivaling George Bush.
Blow up a nearly empty parking garage at 4:00AM killing only yourself?
Because it probably IS terrorism.
Holly – Links to Malkin and LittleDebbie don’t make it terrorism. LV is our version of Sodom and G, maybe it was a mob hit or revenge. I wonder if cell phones were found or Dearbornistan maps?
[edited: purely ad hominem]
Holly this is what the AP says:
So tell me how this is terrorism? The blast did no damage to the structure. The 9-11 hijackers played video games, should the US ban these games as a link to terrorism?
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/07/backpack.explodes.ap/index.html
If there is no breathless speculation about terrorism in the initial reports it’s pretty unlikely it was. I do find it odd that the top uses “backpack” three times but in the story it says the police have said it wasn’t a backpack.
Nice ‘work accident’ snark, Holly…
I have no problem whatsoever with Michelle Malkin – she (like most right-wing bloggers) treats me better than the left-wing bloggers do. Considering that I’m center-left, that should tell you something.
mikkel – Holly and Malkin are now retracting the “terrorism” angle. A small explosion in Lost Wages without structural damage = al-Qaeda??
mikkel: initially they thought it was a backpack.
Personally I’d prefer that all explosions be treated as potentially terrorism until proven otherwise. The Cho shooting was treated as a domestic incident and as a result the campus wasn’t locked down (not saying that that was terrorism, but I’m making the point that a crime shouldn’t be assumed to be an isolated incident when it fits a potential profile for a mass murder). What’s the harm in erring on the side of caution and being ready to respond if it is a larger incident?
I’m sorry CS but I strongly disagree. In the nearly five years since 9/11 there have been about 80k murders in the US and as far as I know none of them have been from terrorism. Not only does treating every event as a possible terrorism one create a lot of social strife (someone gets killed and people start talking about how they don’t trust arabs with backpacks) but the resources required to respond to situations as terrorist events are so massive that they can lead to an increase in crime or excessive use of force against innocents. After all if you assume you’re going into a situation where others are in immediate danger from someone intent on killing as many people as possible you’re more likely to act rashly.
For the Cho shooting, if they had known who committed the original murders I agree they should have responded with a lock down situation because he had a history of mental instability. But from what I remember, they originally blamed the woman’s boyfriend and thought they had the right guy in custody.
I dunno maybe I’m heartless but I think that any specific crime is nearly impossible to stop and cops do a pretty good job with their current outlook. It’s far more useful to look at regions with systemic crime and look for solutions to reduce it.
mikkel,
I think you’re misunderstanding what I mean by having an index of suspicion. I’m not suggesting that every crime should trigger a code red, I’m just saying that a homicide via an explosive device is a bit suspicious (even the followup report says that they’re treating this as a homicide with an unusual weapon).
And in the Cho case, I definitely differ with you. It’s not a matter of them not knowing who the murderer was initially, it’s a case of them jumping to the wrong conclusion which led them to believe that it was isolated and that there was no further danger (because you are correct, they initially suspected that the first female victim and the male with her had been shot by the girl’s boyfriend). All I’m saying is that if they’re mindset had been that a shooting in which they haven’t apprehended a suspect, in a location where further people could be endangered by the shooter on the loose, they should have informed people of the situation and taken more cautionary steps.
I’m only talking about the speculation that happens among law enforcement and among the public when we learn of these incidents. I get your concern about innocent people being feared if the suspicions are taken too far, but there’s a line somewhere between assuming the worst and assuming best case scenario and you and I apparently draw that line in different places.
That’s fair but I am unclear exactly how this would translate to changes on the ground. Would they give out an alert to people or cordon off blocks and shut them down or what? I imagine that they could be like the CDC and try to identify outbreaks. If a suspicious crime or escape situation occured it could be entered into a shared database so if things were happening simultaneously it’d help the authorities figure it out. I’m sure they already have this though.
The last part is in line with what I’m thinking and I don’t know to what extent it’s already done. Basically I’m saying, if an explosive device is found or detonated somewhere, then all law enforcement agencies ought to know about it immediately and have a source of information as it develops.
And to whatever degree that the public begins to get information, I just don’t see what is wrong with us paying attention to the developing details in case something more widespread is at hand. So I’m just saying that the snark about Michelle Malkin and Holly is unwarranted IMO.
LAT-
LAS VEGAS — A device left in a casino parking garage exploded early today, killing a hotel employee who picked it up, authorities said.
The man was removing the device from atop a car when it exploded shortly after 4 a.m. on the second floor of a parking behind the Luxor hotel-casino, said Officer Bill Cassell, a police spokesman. He declined to describe the device, but said initial reports that it was a backpack were wrong.
So it was not a backpack- more like a home-made IED set up for one.
no real damage to other structures/vehicles. Watch the hysterical hype happen anyway…..
Considering that I’m center-left, that should tell you something.
You’re pro-war, pro-McCain, and your links in this story are *all* to RW blogs.
If you’re center-left, I’m Marie of Roumania.
Is it just me or do the right wing blogs just salivate over the possibility that every little act of violence just me be that “next 9/11″ that will finally vault the right out of its doldrums? Am I the only one to suspect this? Or is this like the right accusing the left of “rooting for defeat” in Iraq for domestic political purposes?
No, it’s not just you. It’s just about reached the point where any major auto accident is a sure sign that SEE! THE CALIPHATE IS COMING!! LOCK UP YOUR KIDS AND GRAB YOUR DEER RIFLE.
But, seeing as how these guys have invested a lot of time and energy proclaiming that Sharia law in the US is inevitable unless we act quickly and strongly, it’s not exactly suprising.
Those dominos are gonna tumble down… any minute now…
Elrod, to answer your questions:
No, you’re not the only one (see Shaun Mullen, above).
Yes, this is like the right accusing the left of “rooting for defeat”.
Stating that one has concerns or suspicions doesn’t mean that one is rooting for the negative thing to happen, and it’s sad that we’ve come to distrust those on the other side of the aisle so much as to think that they’re always looking for the angle where their party gains at the expense of a good outcome for the nation.