Police: Vegas casino gunman felt spurned by victim
Dec 18, 2012, 7:47 PM
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) – An Illinois man who fatally wounded a concierge clerk and killed himself at a Las Vegas Strip casino hotel moved with the woman to Las Vegas about three years ago and harbored anger about their breakup, a police homicide commander said Tuesday.
Edward C. Brandt of Lake Forest, Ill., checked into the Excalibur hotel-casino Dec. 12, and waited two days before approaching Jessica Corinne Kenny late Friday while she worked at the concierge desk in the hotel lobby, Las Vegas police Lt. Ray Steiber said.
Brandt, 31, shot Kenny four times with a .38-caliber revolver, then killed himself with a final gunshot to the head, Steiber said. The gun holds five bullets.
Kenny died at a Las Vegas hospital a short time later. She was 30.
Steiber said homicide detectives determined Brandt was acting alone.
“His intent was to kill her. He conjured up this idea that she was unfaithful. He waited until he could get to her,” Steiber said of Kenny, a vendor at the hotel for the travel website VEGAS.com. She died at a hospital shortly after the shooting and was mourned by friends and family members at a private memorial on Monday evening.
“He didn’t hurt anyone else,” Steiber said of Brandt. “He could have.”
The two dated for less than six months and moved together to Las Vegas before breaking up about 2 1/2 years ago, Steiber said. Kenny stayed in Las Vegas, Brandt moved back to the Chicago area.
Casino patrons and guests ducked for cover and scrambled for exits at the sound of gunfire on a busy weekend night at the nearly 4,000-room hotel. But officials say no one else was injured.
The National Finals Rodeo and other events were taking place in Las Vegas and television news was showing images of a school massacre earlier that day in Newtown, Conn.
Telephone messages to a Brandt family member haven’t been returned.
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