Gunman Opens Fire From Reno High-Rise

Police and a sheriff’s SWAT team raided the room and the suspect died shortly after being taken into custody.

• By Jessica Davis
• Nov 30, 2017

A man fired a gun onto the street from inside a high-rise condominium complex in downtown Reno, Nevada, on Tuesday night. Police and a sheriff’s SWAT team raided the room and the suspect died shortly after being taken into custody.

The man, whose name wasn’t immediately released, started firing from the eighth floor of the Montage condominium building onto the street just before 7 p.m., police said. Montage security sent a message to all of the building’s residents telling them to stay in their units or avoid the building.

Officers said the suspect fired bursts of five to eight shots at a time for roughly a 30-minute period, with gaps between bursts lasting minutes. Reno Police Department Deputy Police Chief Tom Robinson couldn’t confirm the exact make and model of the gun used, but said it was a shoulder-fired rifle with 20 to 50 rounds of ammunition.

A woman in the room with the suspect was one of the first people to call 911, an official said. The relationship between the woman and the suspect was not immediately known, but she was described as a hostage. She was able to get out unharmed.

Police and emergency vehicles filled the surrounding blocks, and officers at a nearby intersection were barricaded behind their vehicles with weapons drawn.

Police negotiators contacted the suspect, but he continued to fire. Police and the Washoe County Sherriff’s Office SWAT team breached the room and an officer shot the gunman, authorities said. The suspect was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.

Police determined that one bystander suffered a minor hand injury that did not medical attention. There are no reports that other citizens or officers were injured.

Robinson said police don’t know yet whether this incident was inspired by the Las Vegas shooting in October that left 58 dead and hundreds injured.

He said it’s unclear what the suspect’s motive was but that radio chatter during the incident suggested that he may have been seeing things.

"It's too soon to know for sure," Robinson said. "Maybe it's a little bit of everything."