1 killed, 2 arrested in shooting at Hard Rock Casino

One man is dead and two people are in custody Saturday following a shooting on the casino floor of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Stateline, Nevada, that shutdown Highway 50 in the South Lake Tahoe area.

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In a news conference, Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverly said the shooting arose from a dispute between two men who met at the casino early Saturday and spent hours together before gunfire erupted.

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Video footage from casino surveillance showed the men — suspect, Edgar Julian Delgado, 24, and the victim, Omar Reyes Garcia, 32 — meeting up at 2 a.m. Footage later showed an argument break out just after 8 a.m. when Delgado pulled out a gun and fired on Reyes Garcia, Coverly said. What led to the argument and shooting wasn’t revealed by authorities, who said the investigation is ongoing.

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Reyes Garcia was shot in the head at the casino’s Center Bar and was pronounced dead after being taken to Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe.

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Authorities said Delgado then fled with his girlfriend, 26-year-old Savannah Racquel Tautaupale, in a Toyota 4Runner. The pair headed west on Highway 50 and were stopped by Douglas County deputies just west of Sierra-at-Tahoe following a pursuit.

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Both are being held at the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office jail in South Lake Tahoe.

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“From what we can tell, they met up at the Center Bar about 2 this morning and spent a good deal of time drinking and hanging out there,” Coverley said.

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It was not immediately clear what charges Delgado and Tautaupale will face, but Coverley said Delgado had an “open murder” warrant at the request of El Dorado deputies. Tautaupale, the sheriff said, will face a charge of driving under the influence.

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The shooting forced the closure of the Hard Rock’s casino floor and shut down Highway 50 on the California-Nevada border for several hours, as posts flooded social media over the threat of an active shooting situation and the considerable police response.

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Video posted to social media from outside the hotel, which sits at the eastern end of the casino corridor, showed police in tactical gear running with guns drawn along the resort’s perimeter. As many as 100 law enforcement officials from a constellation of agencies around the Tahoe Basin responded.

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“Ultimately this would not be considered an active shooter but what we could consider just to be a homicide,” Coverly said. “The response may seem overwhelming and over the top, but that’s okay.”

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Following the Oct. 1 shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada law enforcement takes a different approach to shootings inside casinos and this incident was initially dispatched as an active shooter, KOLO-TV reported. The ABC station in Reno said the process includes checking the roof and every place inside the casino for other possible victims and for suspects.

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The Hard Rock, which remained closed Saturday, is slated to be rebranded as a Golden Nugget casino in the next year after its owners, Paragon Gaming, signed a purchase agreement with Fertitta Entertainment, the companies said Friday. Fertitta owns five Golden Nugget locations in Nevada and in Atlantic City, as well as the Houston Rockets basketball team. Paragon exits ownership in the Tahoe area after buying the facility — which has 529 rooms and 25,000-square-feet of gaming space — seven years ago.

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The sale, for which a price was not disclosed, is expected to be completed in the next seven to 12 months, according to the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

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This is a developing story; check back with sacbee.com for updates.

This story was originally published March 25, 2023 at 11:09 am.



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