A gunman who opened fire with a shotgun at a federal building on Monday, killing one security guard and wounding a US marshal before he was shot to death, was upset over losing a lawsuit over his federal pension benefits, law enforcement officials said.
The two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said 66-year-old Johnny Lee Wicks opened fire with a shotgun at a security checkpoint, touching off a gunbattle with deputy US marshals.
Although the investigation is continuing, the officials said preliminary evidence pointed to Wicks’ anger over his benefits case as the motive for the shooting.
Authorities also were investigating the cause of a fire that damaged Wicks’ apartment in a seniors complex 5km northwest of the scene of the shooting.
A neighbor, Johnetta Watkins, said she didn’t see Wicks after firefighters doused the fire.
Watkins, 56, used to drive Wicks to the grocery store. She described him as a quiet man who walked with a limp, lived alone and sometimes complained that Las Vegas was a “prejudiced” place to live.
He also complained about what he called an unfair cut in his Social Security benefits, she said.
The gunman opened fire at the courthouse at about 8am local time. Gunfire lasted several minutes, with shots echoing around tall buildings in the area north of the Las Vegas Strip.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was in Las Vegas but not at his local office in the building, said one of his aides bent down to pick up some newspapers in the atrium when the shooting began.
“She believes her life was saved as a result of picking up those papers,” Reid said. “She then crouched behind a pillar when this ‘war,’ as she said, took place.”
The US Marshals Service said the victims included a 48-year-old deputy US marshal who was hospitalized and Stanley Cooper, a 65-year-old contract court security officer.
Cooper was a retired Las Vegas police officer employed by Akal Security, said Jeff Carter, spokesman for the Marshals Service in Washington.
He was a police officer for 26 years and became a federal court security officer in Las Vegas in 1994, Carter said.
In a handwritten lawsuit filed in March 2008, Wicks complained that his Social Security benefits were cut following his move to Las Vegas, and accused federal workers of discriminating against him because he is black.
“This case from the start was about race,” Wicks wrote. “Lots of state worker(s) and agencies have took part in this scam mainly for old blacks who are not well educated.”
Wicks claimed the problem began in California, after he had a stroke and was unable to go to government offices to protest an earlier benefits reduction. He alleged Social Security staff called his new landlord in Las Vegas and told her not to help him.
The case was dismissed on Sept. 9 by US District Court Judge Philip Pro in Las Vegas following a hearing before federal Magistrate Judge George Foley Jr. Both judges have courtrooms in the federal building.
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