Report shows how Las Vegas officer accidentally shot self on Strip
The off-duty officer who accidentally shot himself in July at a bar on the Strip did so when he tried to place the gun in a friend’s purse, according to a Las Vegas police report released Friday.
Steven Thompson, 26, shot himself July 20 when he was at the Delano Las Vegas’ Skyfall Lounge with five other people, according to an incident report. The Metropolitan Police Department released an unredacted version of the report a day after the Review-Journal protested the previous version in which the report’s narrative was redacted in its entirety without explanation.
The unredacted report was released after the internal investigation into the shooting was closed Friday afternoon, Metro said.
Thompson has been employed by the department since May 2018 and is assigned to the downtown area command’s tourist safety division, spokesman Larry Hadfield said.
Hadfield said that Thompson was not on leave from the department. He would not disclose if the officer was back in the field or if he remained in the hospital.
Officers were called to the Skyfall Lounge, at the top of the hotel, about 10:05 p.m. after one of Thompson’s friends called 911 to report the off-duty officer accidentally shot himself, the report said. A friend of Thompson’s told police that the officer was conceal-carrying his gun on the front of his body.
The friend said his wife gave Thompson her purse for him to place his gun in, because Thompson “did not want to carry his firearm inside,” the report said. He said that as Thompson was putting the gun in the purse, a shot went off.
Thompson and his friends were seated at a table when the gun went off, the report said.
After the shot rang out, another of Thompson’s friends took the magazine out of the gun and cleared the chamber. Police found the gun and the spent round in the seating area “behind the bar.”
When officers arrived, they found Thompson sitting on a couch, suffering from a gunshot wound to his torso, below his navel.
Thompson was taken to University Medical Center with survivable injuries, police said July 20. No one else was injured.
On July 21, a spokesman for MGM Resorts International, which owns the Delano, declined to comment on the shooting. Metro has declined to release further information regarding the shooting, citing confidential employee information.
Attempts to reach Thompson this week were not successful.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.