LAS VEGAS -- Police are searching for a black Range Rover SUV from which gunshots rang out along the city’s famed Strip early Thursday morning, sending a Maserati crashing into a taxi and leaving three dead.

The incident shut down traffic along some of the most famous real estate in the resort city, at Flamingo and Las Vegas boulevards, an intersection surrounded by top casino hotels including the Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Bally’s.


Police said the Range Rover had paper dealer plates, dark tinted windows and black rims. Several persons were believed to have been in the SUV, but the initial descriptions were sketchy.

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Originally, police said the SUV and the Maserati were involved in an exchange of gunfire, but they later revised their description of events. Police say they now believe shooters inside the SUV fired on the sports car about 4:30 a.m.

The Maserati then crashed into a taxi, setting off an explosion, police said. In all, at least six vehicles were involved in the crash.


Dead were the male driver of the Maserati, the taxi driver and the passenger in the cab.

At least four people were taken to a hospital and three have been released, authorities told reporters. One of those injured was the passenger in the Maserati, but it was not known if the passenger was among those released.


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“There was a loud bang and I hear two other booms. I looked out my window at Caesars Palace ... and could see the fireball,” witness John Lamb told KLAS-TV.


Sgt. John Sheahan told reporters that detectives were canvassing the Strip south of Flamingo to determine what happened.

“They’re working on finding the genesis of what kicked this off,” he said.


Early reports indicated a dispute in a nightclub spilled onto the street.

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