Las Vegas gym gunman warned member to leave before shooting, 911 calls reveal: ‘You should get out of here’

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The man Metro police suspect planned a mass shooting at a Las Vegas gym warned a patron to leave before killing an employee, according to 911 calls the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Wednesday.

On Friday, May 16, Daniel Ortega, 34, killed Edgar Quinonez, 31, during the shooting inside the Las Vegas Athletic Club on Rainbow Boulevard near Vegas Drive. Metro police shot and killed Ortega as he ran out of the front of the business. Three other people were injured in the shooting.

More than 30 people called 911 in the more than 90-minute-long audio the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Wednesday.

Ortega, armed with an Olympic Arms PCR-223 caliber rifle and “multiple” ammunition magazines, walked past several people who were leaving the gym and then approached an employee who was working the front desk. Police said Ortega then began to “pace” around the front desk while several other people left the business.

One call involved a woman telling a dispatcher that her husband interacted with Ortega as both men walked into the gym.

“They exchanged some words, and then the shooter told him to leave,” she said. “And then he heard the shots. I guess the guy walked in and he had the gun, and I guess my husband looked at him and said. ‘Is that real?’ And the guy said, ‘No, it’s fake,’ and then kind of pointed it at him and said, ‘No, it’s real, you should get out of here.’”

The man who spoke with Ortega then talked with the dispatcher, saying he suspected something was wrong.

“The way he was dressed, I thought he was a cop or something like that,” the man later told police. “Nobody was doing anything. Nobody was freaking out or something anything. Nobody was acting weird.”

“He just told you to leave?” the dispatcher said.

“I just hid behind the pillar because I didn’t know what was going on,” the man said. “He kept walking in and said, ‘No, it’s fake, but you should get out of here.’”

Several 911 calls capture the sound of gunfire. Police said Ortega fired 24 rounds before his weapon malfunctioned.

One person locked in an office near the gym’s entrance described Ortega to a dispatcher, saying he was “wandering around” and later sitting in a chair with the shotgun in his hand.

Several people described to dispatchers how they were hiding in offices, closets, or bathrooms as Ortega walked through part of the building.

“The gym is full of people,” another caller told a dispatcher as she hid in a closet. “He has a huge, long gun. I don’t know what kind of gun it is.”

“He was by himself,” a caller said, believing Ortega may have intended to target Quinonez. “The thing is, when he came in, he told me to move. Like, he didn’t shoot me. He’s just like, ‘Get out of the way. You better move.’”

An employee who called 911 believed the gym was packed with up to 150 members and at least 10 employees, they said on one call.

Several people called 911 from the building’s roof.

“I just ran,” one caller said.

Another person called 911 as a driver brought him to a hospital.

“I am on my way to the hospital,” the caller said. “It was so many different shots, and people started running.”

During a news conference focusing on the officer-involved shooting, LVMPD Asst. Sheriff Jamie Prosser said the rifle’s malfunction “saved the incident from being a mass-casualty event.”

The investigation into a possible motive was ongoing, police said. Ortega was a member of the gym and worked out at that location, but there was no connection known between him and Quinonez, Prosser said.

8 News Now Investigator David Charns can be reached at dcharns@8newsnow.com.

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