Armed man at Commerce Casino prompts evacuation
The Commerce Casino was evacuated early Tuesday morning due to a report of an armed man fighting with security staff. L.A. County sheriff's deputies later took the suspect into custody.
The East L.A. Sheriff's Station received a call at 5:45 a.m. of a man with a knife at at the Commerce Casino and Hotel, located at 6121 Telegraph Road in Commerce.
Crisis negotiators and a mental evaluation team responded after deputies arrived. A small area of the casino was immediately evacuated. No one was threatened, Chavez said.
Negotiators spoke with the man for about an hour, and he was then taken into custody and transported to a local hospital.
At 7:55 a.m. an L.A. County Fire Dept. ambulance transporting a patient was seen driving away from the casino. At about 8:15 a.m. the sheriff's department said the suspect was in custody.
A 6-inch knife was recovered at the scene.
The man appeared to be mentally distraught, Sheriff's Captain Pilar Chavez said in a Tuesday morning news conference. The man did not threaten anyone else, Chavez said.
The man did not fight with security staff, Chavez said, and a K-9 unit summoned to the scene was not involved.
Witnesses told deputies the man was yelling that he did not want to live anymore.
There were about 200 people in the poker room, which was evacuated.
Aaron Sessions was in the poker room at the time of the incident.
"He was playing for a little bit, and then he stopped playing, and then everyone was like 'This guy's not playing a hand, he's not doing anything.' People were kind of confused," said Sessions. "He was on something."
No further details were given about the man, and the investigation was ongoing, according to Chavez.