Vegas Casino Worker Promised Massacre at Stanley Cup Parade

On Wednesday, a court mandated that a Las Vegas casino employee, who had threatened to drive his truck into the city’s Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup victory procession, must remain in prison unless he can put down a bail of $55,000.

Anthony Zuccaro was present at the Las Vegas Justice Court on Wednesday, charged with threatening or making false statements about committing an act of terrorism. He disclosed to a crisis call center in Arizona that he was attempting to seek “suicide by cop” while also plotting to “drive a vehicle into the gathered crowd” during the Las Vegas Strip event last Saturday evening in order to create “panic and cause many deaths.” In addition, he intended to “target every police officer” present at the event. The 31-year-old, apparently employed by an unnamed Las Vegas casino, is currently facing one felony count of threatening or making a false statement about committing an act of terrorism, as well as the additional charge of Attempt to Flee from Police. (Image: KSNV)

Attempt to Flee from Police

At approximately 2:30 pm on Saturday, Zuccaro was arrested, four and a half hours prior to the scheduled start of festivities. A day before his arrest, Zuccaro had called a mental health support center in Nevada to inform them of thoughts that he was having involving suicide and homicide, as found in The Las Vegas Review-Journal. An attendant had organized for Zuccaro to see a police officer at a petrol station in the south of Las Vegas, however this meeting had not gone successfully and Zuccaro appears to have made threats afterwards. Law enforcement attempted to keep him in custody, though he tried to run away on his bike. Even though Zuccaro was released, his motorcycle was returned to him. Zuccaro then told the crisis center of Arizona that he was upset due to the harm done to his motorbike, apparently motivating him to break the side mirrors and windows of random cars.

The police reported that the individual claimed to have engaged in physical aggression with someone on another bicycle, before divulging his plan to induce “extreme disquiet and generate many fatalities” at the parade the following day. They noted that he further alluded to the many video cameras that would be present, as well as that his ex-partner and her new partner would likely be in attendance, thus prompting Heightened Security.

Heightened Security

At the hearing on Wednesday at Las Vegas Justice Court, Zuccao, who is originally from New York, argued that he wasn’t dangerous and said he was trying to “build a life in Las Vegas.” His public defender maintained that he was being “charged with words and not violence.” With the city still reeling from the 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people, the atmosphere was tense around the parade and police were not taking any chances – according to The Associated Press, guests in hotels with views of the Strip were even awoken by security guards searching the rooms for any firearms or other weapons.