Lawsuit accuses Las Vegas Strip casino of not intervening before gunman shot customer

by: David Charns
Posted: Jan 12, 2023 / 02:47 PM PST
Updated: Jan 12, 2023 / 04:41 PM PST

​Rivers Casino Des Plaines in Illinois, pictured above. A man was robbed and kidnapped at the casino. (Image: Rivers Casino Des Plaines)

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses security staff at a Las Vegas Strip casino of failing to protect a group of customers after a man threatened them with a gun. That man later shot a member of the group, leading to substantial injuries and multiple surgeries, documents said.
Attorneys for the shooting victim, Eric Aguilar, are suing the Venetian Resort Las Vegas and several security guards, following the incident on a casino floor in January 2021.
On Jan. 18, 2021, a gunman shot Aguilar outside of the casino following an incident inside the Palazzo casino, the lawsuit and court records said.
Aguilar was celebrating his 33rd birthday when another man threatened him with a gun, the lawsuit said. At least one Venetian employee is seen in surveillance video watching the threat unfold, the lawsuit said.

The encounter began when Aguilar’s group commented on a person in another group wearing a San Francisco 49ers Jersey, the lawsuit said.
“Without warning, the gunman began to verbally engage Mr. Aguilar’s group, stating that he would ‘[expletive] kill’ Mr. Aguilar and his friends,” the lawsuit said.

The man with the gun then left the area, the lawsuit said. Security guards then evicted Aguilar and his friends from the property, the lawsuit said.
“Upon hearing Mr. Aguilar report that the gunman had threatened him with a handgun on the gaming floor, one of the Venetian defendants’ three uniformed security guards said that they did not ‘give [an] [expletive] that the gunman had pointed a gun at him and told Mr. Aguilar to leave,” lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.


Venetian security did not take a statement from Aguilar and did not take any action to find the man with the gun, the lawsuit said.
“The Venetian defendants’ actions led inexorably to Mr. Aguilar being first threatened by a gunman with a loaded handgun on the Venetian defendant’s gaming floor, and then being shot by the same gunman outside the Venetian while Venetian defendants and at least three of their security guards sat on their hands, watched the scene unfold on their video surveillance system, and did absolutely nothing to protect Mr. Aguilar.”