Several victims of a mass shooting at a Reno casino this week were Southern California residents attending a friend’s bachelor party.
The violence began just after 7:30 a.m. Monday, when police say the gunman walked through a parking lot from the north and emerged in the valet area of the Grand Sierra Resort. There, he encountered a group visiting from Thousand Oaks, friends of the victims told The Times.
The shooter was identified by police in Sparks, Nev., as Dakota Hawver, 26, a Reno resident who is in critical condition after being shot by a hotel security guard. Hawver, who police said has no criminal or mental health history, fired approximately 80 rounds from a 9-millimeter handgun that he legally purchased two years ago.
According to police, Hawver walked up to the group and tried to shoot, but the weapon malfunctioned. The group started to scatter just as the man got the gun working again and started shooting.
Andrew Canepa, 33, was hit several times and died at a hospital, according to two friends who requested anonymity. Canepa, the father of a young son, was an owner and server at the Side Street Cafe in Newbury Park, a popular breakfast and lunch restaurant.
Another member of the Thousand Oaks group, Justin Agulia, 33, was also killed by a gunshot, according to police. He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union since 2018 and had recently become engaged to his longtime girlfriend, his friends said.
Dylan McLean, a third man from Thousand Oaks, was shot in the shoulder, jumped into a nearby truck and asked the driver to take him to a hospital, friends told The Times. During the drive, he called Matt Sitler, a friend who had been shot multiple times and was hiding from the gunman.
Sitler, also from Thousand Oaks, was hospitalized, listed in critical condition and put on life support Monday. By the evening, after surgery to remove his spleen, he was able to breathe on his own, his friends told The Times. His first words after the attack were, “Is Andrew OK?”
The group attacked in the casino were all 2010 graduates of Thousand Oaks High and several had played high school sports together.
The group had stayed at an Airbnb near Lake Tahoe before spending Sunday night at the casino to be closer to the Reno airport. They woke early Monday, checked out of the hotel and were waiting at the valet station for rides to take them to the airport when Hawver arrived.
Amid the chaos at the valet station, a casino security guard responded and shot at Hawver, sending him fleeing, police said. As he ran away, he encountered a vehicle moving through the parking lot and opened fire, killing the driver. Police identified the driver as Angel Martinez, 66, of Reno.
Soon after, police arrived and engaged Hawver in a shootout, critically wounding him.
Martinez’s family mourned him online, where they were seeking help covering costs for his funeral.
“Our uncle came from a large loving family, one of eleven siblings,” Martinez’s niece, Becka Gonzalez, wrote on a GoFundMe page. “He had a lifelong love of cooking, just like many of his brothers, and spent more than three decades working in restaurants and casinos throughout Reno, Nevada.”
There did not appear to be any connection between Hawver and the victims, police said.
“We have no known motive by the suspect,” Sparks Police Chief Chris Crawforth said at a news conference Monday.
The Grand Sierra Resort is one of the biggest hotel and casino complexes in Reno. The 27-story building has nearly 2,000 rooms as well as casinos, spas and restaurants. It was previously branded the MGM and later the Bally’s hotel and resort. The business was open and operating as of Tuesday.
“Tragedies like this are horrific for any community to endure, not just for the victims, the first responders and the people who were there, but for everyone involved in our community,” Reno Police Chief Kathryn Nance said. “Violence is not acceptable, especially in our public spaces.”
Times staff writer Summer Lin contributed to this report.
