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Police: Casino video shows Nevada shooting

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AP
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LAS VEGAS >> With a Hells Angel dead, two rival Vagos wounded and another biker in jail, police in northern Nevada are using video and witness accounts to identify assailants in a deadly weekend shooting at a casino.

Sparks Deputy Police Chief Brian Allen said Monday that local, state and federal investigators are working together to head off retaliation following Friday’s shooting at John Ascuaga’s Nugget.

Allen says about 60 Vagos and a dozen Hells Angels members are seen on casino videotapes before, during and after the shooting that killed the leader of the Hells Angels’ San Jose, Calif., chapter.

Police aren’t releasing the surveillance video but say they might do so in the future.

Allen says the drive-by shooting of a motorcyclist Saturday morning might be connected.

The city of Sparks declared the emergency and canceled all motorcycle festival events Saturday morning after the shooting that appeared to be in retaliation for Friday’s death of Hells Angeles leader Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew.

Authorities in Sparks lifted a state of emergency at 5 p.m Sunday. after Mayor Geno Martini said there were no further incidents.

Pettigrew, 51, was killed in a shootout at John Ascuaga’s Nugget hotel-casino. Two California members of the Vagos Motorcycle Club also were wounded in the fight that sent hotel guests and gamblers scrambling under tables and through the hotel’s kitchen to escape the violence.

Martini said cancelations were necessary because of the thousands of people, including children, who attend the event. This year’s attendance was expected to approach 30,000 people in Sparks, Reno and Virginia City.

"The safety and security of event attendees in Sparks is a priority," Martini said. "The individuals who engaged in the violence do not in any way reflect the majority of the event attendees."

Events were allowed to continue in Reno, although city spokesman Chris Good said police — along with state and federal authorities — were not only on the streets in significant numbers but also had undercover officers in the crowds.

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