Guard, gunman die in Las Vegas shootout

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun at a federal building Monday in downtown Las Vegas, killing a court security guard and wounding a U.S. marshal before he was shot to death in a running gunbattle across the street.

The gunfire erupted moments after 8 a.m. at the start of the work week and lasted for several minutes. Shots echoed around tall buildings in the area, more than a mile north of the Las Vegas Strip. An Associated Press reporter on the eighth floor of a high-rise within sight of the federal building heard a sustained barrage of gunfire.

The U.S. Marshals Service said the victims included a 48-year-old deputy U.S. marshal who was hospitalized and a 65-year-old court security officer who died.

The dead guard was Stanley Cooper, a retired Las Vegas police officer employed by Akal Security, said Jeff Carter, spokesman for the Marshals Service in Washington.

Las Vegas police did not immediately provide information about Cooper. Carter said he was a police officer for 26 years and became a federal court security officer in Las Vegas in 1994.

Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Roxanna Lea Irwin said authorities believe the shooter acted alone.

The man, dressed in black pants, shirt and jacket, opened fire in front of a set of security metal detectors just inside the rotunda of the federal building, FBI Special Agent Joseph Dickey said.

“From what witness accounts have said, he walked in with a shotgun underneath his jacket and opened fire when he opened the doors,” Dickey said. “Seven officers responded and returned fire.”

The gunman died moments later in the bushes outside the restored Fifth Street School, where his body remained for several hours.

Law enforcement officials say the suspect was upset over losing a lawsuit over his Social Security benefits.

The two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, say Johnny Lee Wicks is the man who opened fire and was shot dead in a gunfight with deputy U.S. marshals.

Court records show Wicks had sued the Social Security Administration in 2008, but the case was thrown out and formally closed in September 2009.