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A gunman clad in black opened fire at Las Vegas's federal courthouse Monday, killing a security guard and wounding a deputy US marshal before he was shot dead by law enforcement as he fled.
Federal Bureau of Investigation officials declined to release the identity of the shooter or offer any motive for the 8:00 am (1600 GMT) incident that rattled the city's downtown area.
Witnesses heard a lengthy rat-tat-tat of a gun fight that left the suspect dead on the sidewalk across the street from the courthouse.
"At this point, we believe it was a lone gunman, a criminal act, not a terrorist act," FBI. Special Agent Joseph Dickey said.
"We are following up on this to determine why this man did what he did today. That's going to take some time, we are not going to release the name of this person at this point."
The gunman entered the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse, pulled a concealed shotgun from his jacket and began firing away indiscriminately from outside the metal detectors, Dickey said.
Security officer Stanley W. Cooper, 65, was slain. A retired 26-year veteran of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Cooper had worked at the courthouse since 1994, said Jeff Carter, spokesman for the US Marshals division of the Department of Justice based in Washington.
A 48-year-old deputy marshal whose identity has not been released was shot in the upper arm and was in good enough condition to speak to investigators a few hours after the incident, Dickey said.
Henrietta Moss, 43, was walking to work at a pawn shop in the area when she heard the commotion.
"It was, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, and it went on," said Moss, whose description supported a YouTube video posted from a few blocks away on which about 20 shots are heard.
Dickey said seven federal marshals and other security personnel from the courthouse chased the suspect after he opened fire, at which point he fled before he was shot down.
