Author: The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — The person killed in a shooting at a Las Vegas fitness center last week was a longtime employee who had no known connection to the shooter, police said Monday. Edgar Quinonez, 31, of Las Vegas, was shot and killed Friday at the Las Vegas Athletic Club, police said. Arriving officers fired at the suspected shooter, 34-year-old Daniel Ortega, as he exited the gym after firing 24 rounds, police said. Ortega, a gym member, died of gunshot wounds, according to police. Three other people were injured at the gym on the city’s west side as gunfire erupted. They were transported to local hospitals, with one in critical condition. Their conditions weren’t released on Monday. Officials are still investigating a motive, saying they have found no connection between the two men. Jamie Prosser, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department assistant sheriff, said at a media briefing on Monday that Ortega entered the gym with a rifle on Friday afternoon. She said he approached an employee at the front desk and paced around before briefly exchanging words with another employee. Then he lifted the rifle and shot the employee as he fled into the gym, she said.Ortega followed and continued firing, Prosser said, and at some point Ortega returned to the lobby and fired until the weapon malfunctioned. An arriving officer fired at Ortega when he opened the entrance door and he was shot by officers as he left the building with the rifle. He died at a nearby hospital, police said. She said Ortega worked out at the gym but at this time there was no known connection to the victim.
The creator of the “Dilbert” comic strip, which was canceled by most newspapers two years ago over the creator’s racist comments, says he has been diagnosed with the same aggressive prostate cancer as former President Joe BidenThe creator of the Dilbert comic strip, which was canceled by most newspapers two years ago over the creator’s racist comments, said Monday that he has been diagnosed with the same aggressive prostate cancer as former President Joe Biden.“I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has,” Scott Adams said Monday during an episode of his YouTube show, “Real Coffee with Scott Adams. “So, I also have prostate cancer that has also spread to my bones.”He made the announcement after extending his “respect and compassion and sympathy” for Biden and his family. Biden announced his diagnosis on Sunday and said he and his family were reviewing treatment options with his doctors.Adams, 67, said he’s always in pain, uses a walker to get around and that he expects to die sometime this summer. “It’s basically intolerable,” he said of the pain.Adams said he has had time to process his diagnosis and that it has given him time to say goodbyes, get his affairs in order and do all the things he needed to do.Dilbert the comic strip first appeared in 1989, poking fun at office culture. It ran for decades in numerous newspapers but disappeared with lightning speed in 2023 following racist remarks by Adams. On his YouTube show at the time, among other things, he described Black people as a “hate group” and said he would no longer “help Black Americans.” He later said he was being hyperbolic, yet continued to defend his stance.Various media publishers across the U.S. denounced the comments as racist, hateful and discriminatory while saying they would no longer provide a platform for his work. The editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, which dumped “Dilbert” in 2022, said the comic strip “went from being hilarious to being hurtful and mean.”