Ed Pierce killed in Las Vegas shootout

Go Back

Oxford Eagle October 19, 1997 Ed Pierce killed in Las Vegas shootout "Box Killer" Ed Pierce shot dead by federal agents in Las Vegas casino rooftop battle Chase McFadden STAFF WRITER
Las Vegas, Nev. - Police in the city of Las Vegas, who admit that they are used to bizarre crimes and criminals from mobsters to pimps to the growing drug trade, say that they are still stunned from the shootout that took place on their busiest street this past Friday night. The total tally: three deaths, the wounding of eleven police officers of various rank, and close to six million dollars in property damage to the state of Nevada and to the casino itself.
Authorities comment that they were compelled to treat the situation as a terrorist attack from the outset, when the suspect opened fire on them with a hail of bullets right as they pulled up to the front walk of the casino.
"It was like a war," one officer said, "and I wasn't sure we'd win it."
The shootout involved the infamous "box killer" Edward Pierce, who was wanted nationwide for the murder of University of Mississippi student Purity Knight. Knight was kidnapped and held against her will in a box in a rural part of Yoknapatawpha County, then later murdered.
Pierce has been on the lam since his escape Sept. 20 from a Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department transport van as he and another prisoner were being transferred to a more secure facility.
Pierce was reportedly traveling through Las Vegas to an undisclosed location on the West Coast with Victoria Symons, a one-time waitress and student at the University of Mississippi. Symons reportedly approached police in Las Vegas around 3:30 on Friday afternoon and informed them that Pierce was in the area. When police raided the location that Symons had described, they found it empty.
Only thirty minutes later, they received a 911 call from downtown, during which the caller, a store owner, described a man firing at security personnel at the Horseshoe casino on the "Strip," the several-mile long main drag of Las Vegas.
Federal agent Gary Stremcha said Pierce had attempted to cut through the casino after Stremcha, in an unmarked patrol car, spotted Pierce walking along the Strip and turned on the car's flashing lights. Upon entering the casino, security personnel said Pierce set off hidden metal detectors, which prompted several security officers to follow him as he moved through the main gambling area. Upon being ordered to stop, Pierce bolted for the exit and opened fire.
Both the Las Vegas SWAT team and the Las Vegas Office of the Nevada State Police responded to the 911 call.
The caller, one Thomas Berry, described a "war" that was going on outside the front doors of the casino between a man and several casino security personnel. The caller also reported that the man was carrying and firing at least three separate weapons, one of which he described as a shotgun. (See our additional story on page 2).
Las Vegas authorities sped to the scene and were immediately fired upon by the suspect, who took up a crouched position right inside the open breezeway of the casino entrance, using a set of concrete pillars as a shield.
Officers believed he fired more than two hundred rounds at them in the space of ten minutes, resulting in the destruction of three police cars and the wounding of four officers, who all are expected to recover.
Officials say that they could have moved in on Pierce quickly but what started as a shoot-out escalated into a hostage situation when Pierce ran inside, firing behind him for cover, and grabbed a woman who had just stepped off the elevator by chance. He pushed her backwards into the elevator and placed his gun on the elevator operator and forced him to use the keys to take the elevator to the roof.
Once on the roof, police say, Pierce shut down the elevator and forced his two captives onto the roof. Pierce walked the elevator operator over to the roof edge and held him over the side of the balcony and fired on police.
Police, who had received a report that Pierce was on the roof, opened fire on the figure who they thought was Pierce. Bill Madsen, 54, a twenty-seven year veteran of the Las Vegas casino business, was killed in the return of gunfire, and Pierce subsequently threw his body from the roof, where it crashed into a police car windshield.
By this time, a Las Vegas police helicopter was on the scene, and coming under a hail of fire from Pierce, were forced to back away. During the entire attack, Pierce held Barbara Ragsdale, 34, a hotel guest on vacation from Minneapolis, in front of him, almost daring the helicopter to fire on him. On another occasion, he threatened to throw Mrs. Ragsdale from the roof unless they backed off.
Authorities on the ground tried to force Pierce back into the elevator by firing multiple tear gas canisters onto the roof. Pierce responded by throwing them back off the roof, creating more confusion on the "Strip." Downtown Las Vegas was awash in green and white smoke for the better part of four hours.
The Las Vegas SWAT team commandeered a separate elevator and began to ride up to the roof. When Pierce realized what was happening, he dragged his hostage over to the elevator shaft and threw a tear gas canister down the shaft, causing the team to retreat back down to ground level.
By this time, the entire casino and adjoining hotel had been evacuated and several news cameramen and reporters had arrived. A helicopter from the main Las Vegas television station was also hovering about two hundred yards away from the roof, and filmed the latter part of the siege. That tape is now the property of the Las Vegas Police Department. A crowd numbering in the hundreds had collected on the ground below and were coughing from the tear gas.
The Las Vegas Police commandeered floor plans of the building from the casino security office and found that a set of stairs on the floor below the roof led outside and onto the roof. Apparently the stairs are used by casino personnel for access to the air conditioning control panel, which is enclosed inside a short hallway on the roof itself, in a back corner. The hallway has one access door which leads to the roof and the entrance to the roof is barred by a mesh gate.
Using this stairwell, members of the Las Vegas SWAT team were able to open the door quietly and cut round hole through the mesh. Their finest sniper, Lieutenant Paul Dickerson, took up a position where he could have a clear shot at Pierce, who was standing some one hundred yards away with his back turned, holding Mrs. Ragsdale in front of him with a gun to her head.
Dickerson, a U.S. Army Ranger in Vietnam with twenty-seven confirmed kills as a sniper, drew a bead on Pierce's head and waited for the signal from his commanding officer, who was next to him and watching Pierce's movements through a pair of binoculars.
The Las Vegas Police helicopter approached the roof once more. Pierce began to yell that he would throw Mrs. Ragsdale off the roof and edged over towards it with her in tow. Pierce reportedly turned his head to the side for a moment to fire over the roof at the police below and at this point Dickerson received the go-ahead from his commander and shot Pierce in the back of the head.
Pierce's forward momentum as he was shot knocked Mrs. Ragsdale out of his arms and from the roof, where she was caught by a firefighter's net which had been erected during the standoff. Ragsdale reportedly suffered a broken collarbone from the fall.
After cutting through the remaining mesh on the screen door, the SWAT team edged out and made sure that Pierce was dead. On his person were a sawed-off double barreled shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle, a .38 pistol, ammunition, and a hunting knife with a ten-inch blade. A .357 Magnum matching the description of the gun stolen off the corpse of Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Deputy Vernon Schiff, who was killed in the Sept. 20 van crash, was also in Pierce's possession.
In Pierce's trouser pocket police found a small pill bottle of methamphetamines, which authorities say could account for his seemingly superhuman energy and endurance during the four-hour standoff.
Symons is being held in Las Vegas pending extradition back to Yoknapatawpha County, where she will face felony charges that include aiding and abetting the escape of Pierce and concealment of a felony charged suspect.
Symons has been questioned about the disappearance of Macy Lamar, the daughter of Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff Charles Lamar. Pierce was reportedly the prime suspect in her disappearance but authorities are releasing no further details at this time.