Security guards killed at Las Vegas casino identified
Phillip Albert Archuleta, a father of two young boys, took care of everyone, from friends to family, who remember him for his “beautiful smirk.”
“That was his life; he was just a bundle of joy, always with a smile on his face,” his aunt, Florence Archuleta, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday. “We called him the perfect child.”
The native of California’s San Fernando Valley moved to Las Vegas to be closer to his sister, his aunt said.
Archuleta was identified Tuesday by the Clark County coroner’s office as one of the security guards killed Saturday at Arizona Charlie’s Decatur in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas residents LaTosha Juane White, 50, and Archuleta, 28, were shot to death after they responded to a room in the hotel, at 740 S. Decatur Blvd.
When asked about White, her aunt declined to comment Tuesday out of respect for the family.
On Saturday, a woman requested security after she said two men she invited into her room had forced her outside, police said.
A man let the guards into the room before opening fire on them, police said. After the shooting, the gunman, later identified as 29-year-old Christopher Olague, ran from the hotel-casino and shot himself as pursuing Metropolitan Police Department officers closed in.
Olague, of Smithfield, Utah, was taken to University Medical Center and died Sunday, the Clark County coroner’s office said. Olague had done several stints in Utah prisons, police said.
Olague was out on parole, according to the Utah Department of Corrections.
Metro said it has not yet talked to the woman who called security Saturday, but she and the two men were seen on surveillance footage before the shooting.
The other man, who is not suspected of firing a weapon, has yet to be questioned by the police, Lt. Dan McGrath said. He had left the room before the guards arrived, leaving the shooter by himself.
Golden Entertainment, the parent company of Arizona Charlie’s, declined to comment Tuesday, citing Metro’s continuing investigation. In a statement Saturday, the company called the shooting “a senseless act of violence” and said it is providing counseling and resources to team members who need professional support to deal with the shooting.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter. Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @brianarerick on Twitter.