FOXNews.com: Argument leads to Vegas Strip shooting, fiery crash

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Argument leads to Vegas Strip shooting, fiery crash Feb 22nd 2013, 16:45 Three people were killed after a shooter in a black Range Rover Sport opened fire early Thursday morning on the Las Vegas Strip into a Maserati, striking the car's driver and passenger, before the car lost control and caused a fiery crash at the intersection of Flamingo and Las Vegas boulevards, KVVU reported. The driver of the Maserati, a taxi cab driver and a passenger in the cab were killed. A tourist who witnessed the aftermath of the crash told KLAS-TV the burning taxi looked like a fireball. The SUV got away. Police say an altercation earlier in the valet area of the nearby Aria hotel-casino prompted the car-to-car attack in the heart of the Strip at Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road. Authorities said they were contacting authorities in three neighboring states about the vehicle. In all, five vehicles were involved in the dramatic crash around 4:30 a.m. Thursday at an intersection surrounded by some of the most famous casinos on the Strip, including the Bellagio, Caesars Palace and the Paris. It appears the occupants of the Range Rover Sport, which has black-tinted windows and matching rims, fired into the Maserati and hit the passenger and the driver, Jose Hernandez, the public information officer for the Las Vegas police department, told Fox News. The car's driver lost control and drove into the intersection and struck a cab and four other vehicles, Hernandez said. One former law enforcement witness said he heard one gunshot, followed by a series of blasts followed by a "very loud boom." Several people were taken to the hospital, including a passenger from the Maserati. Four were taken to University Medical Center. Hospital spokeswoman Danita Cohen said three were treated and released, while one person remained in the hospital. Their condition was not released. It's the latest in a series of violent actions on the tourist corridor since the beginning of the year. Two people were critically wounded in a shooting at a parking garage Feb. 6, and a tourist was stabbed in an elevator at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay Feb. 16. A spokesman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Jeremy Handel, said his organization didn't immediately have a comment on the incident and deferred to the police unit that patrols the tourism district. Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie told reporters several hours after Thursday's attack that the violence at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road did not reflect the values of Las Vegas residents or visitors. "What happened will not be tolerated," Gillespie said. He promised the shooters would be "found and prosecuted to the full extent of the law." On the Strip -- closed and snarling traffic throughout the day until reopening late Thursday night -- the fiery rampage shocked tourists. "We get stabbings, and gang violence," said Mark Thompson, who was visiting from Manchester, England, with his wife, "but this is like something out of a movie. Like `Die Hard' or something." Police said they were contacting authorities in three neighboring states about the Range Rover Sport with dark tinted windows and distinctive black custom rims and plates that fled the scene about 4:20 a.m. It had a car dealer's advertisement in place of a license plate. In Southern California, the California Highway Patrol alerted officers in at least three counties to be on the lookout for the SUV. Las Vegas police Sgt. John Sheahan said the Range Rover was last seen near the Venetian resort as it headed north from the shooting scene on Las Vegas Boulevard. Witnesses also told police the SUV and Maserati had come from the nearby CityCenter area, the home of Aria, just south of the site of the attack. "We have numerous witnesses to this," Sheahan said. "But what is the genesis of this? We don't know yet." Predawn jogger Eric Lackey was on his way back to the New York-New York hotel when he snapped a cellphone photo of the blazing scene moments after the crash. Black smoke billowed from the flaming taxi, amid popping sounds from the fire. Lackey, of Forest Hill, Md., said a security officer in a yellow shirt performed CPR on a person on the sidewalk while police officers canvassed a small crowd of perhaps 15 onlookers gathering at the scene. "Police were asking if anyone was still in the vehicles and if they heard gunfire," Lackey told The Associated Press. "That's when I realized it wasn't just a regular accident." Sheahan said police have video from traffic cameras at the intersection and were checking hotel surveillance systems. The video will not be made public, he said. Police did not release the names of the people who were killed, citing the ongoing investigation. The crumpled, gray Maserati, which had no license plate, came to rest several feet away from the incinerated taxi. "The people I feel sorry for are the people in the taxi," said Elvina Joyce, a tourist from Regina, Saskatchewan. "Seconds made all the difference in the world for them. Wrong place, wrong time." The area near the scene has been the site of high-profile violence in the past. Rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996 about a block away under similar circumstances, as assailants opened fire on his luxury sedan from a vehicle on Flamingo Road. The killing has never been solved. Click for more from Fox5Vegas.com The Associated Press contributed to this report

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