Las Vegas store guard shot at manager after being told to stop complaints, police say

A retail store security guard fired a gun at his manager Saturday afternoon after she told him to stop complaining about a customer, Las Vegas police said Tuesday.

The gunfire inside a southwest Las Vegas store led to the Metropolitan Police Department’s fifth police shooting in an eight-day stretch.

“We’ve had a tough week at Metro,” Assistant Sheriff Charles Hank told reporters.

Police received calls of an active shooter inside Ross Dress for Less, 4000 Blue Diamond Road, around 4:15 p.m. Within minutes, an officer arrived and the shooter, identified by police as 37-year-old Mohamed Mahmoud, began shooting outside the store at the police vehicle.

Another officer, 47-year-old Bryon Bunitsky, arrived and also took gunfire. He returned five shots, hitting Mahmoud once near his hip. Mahmoud remained hospitalized with survivable injuries Tuesday and has been booked into the Clark County Detention Center in absentia.

Before exchanging gunfire with police, Mahmoud got into an argument with his manager because she told him to stop complaining about a customer who left a shopping cart near the entrance of the store.

Another employee at the store tried to intervene, Hank said. Mahmoud then threw his work vest, pointed at the two employees and told them he would kill them, according to police.

He went to the parking lot and got a handgun, police said. Mahmoud fired 16 shots — half of them inside the store and the other half in the parking lot. He fired multiple shots at the manager, who was not hit.

The shooting sent customers at the shopping center running for cover. Dispatchers received more than 3½ hours of 911 calls related to the shooting.

“The suspect in this event showed absolutely no regard for the safety of anyone in the area,” Hank said. “I believe our officer involved in this shooting acted courageously and with impressive accuracy based on the distance of the shots fired.”

Bunitsky shot about 53 yards away from Mahmoud.

Mahmoud was the only person hurt in the shooting. He faces counts of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon on a protected person, assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a gun into an occupied structure. He had no criminal history before the shooting, police said.

This is the 15th police shooting for Metro this year. At this time last year, Las Vegas police had 16 officer-involved shootings.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.