Calls for Heightened Security after Milwaukee Casino Shooting
On the heels of a shooting last weekend at a Milwaukee casino, the Potawatomi Bingo Casino, many Wisconsin residents are calling for tighter security at casinos statewide.
“We only get that one chance when people come in to make sure they’re comfortable and secure,” remarked Lisa Waukau, who belongs to the Menominee Tribe, which runs a casino in Keshena.
Guards lack guns; no metal detectors
While most casino properties, Potawatomi included, feature state-of-the-art camera and surveillance systems designed to thwart cheating, card-counting, and theft, patrons are not required to walk through any sort of metal detector upon entering, nor are persons or bags searched to prevent weapons from being carried in. Furthermore, casino guards are unarmed.
After last weekend’s shooting, Potawatomi patrons reported a scene bordering on chaos, as people scrambled for the exits while security staff seemed confused as to how to deal with the unfolding emergency. Some guests reported two separate stampedes as casino customers attempted to evacuate the casino floor, where a woman was shot in the leg.
While some are calling for tighter security Menominee’s Waukau remarked that things actually could have been worse, saying, “That could have been terrible. We reminded everybody (working at the Menominee Casino Resort) that it could happen at any casino.”
Suspect says he was not involved
A suspect, Gregory Harmon, was arrested and jailed on separate charges that he stole a car belonging to a former girlfriend back in 2012. He has since been released pending further investigation of the shooting case by law enforcement officials.
Following his release from jail, Harmon’s attorney, Robert D’Arruda, told reporters that his client was not responsible for shooting the woman last weekend. In fact, D’Arruda said, Harmon himself is a victim.
“He was attacked by a group of individuals and those individuals are the ones that brandished the gun that led to the shooting,” D’Arruda said last week, adding that security footage will back up his client’s claims.
Attention is unwanted
The negative focus generated by the unfortunate happening at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino is surely something Wisconsin’s tribal casinos would prefer to avoid, particularly as the state is looking into expanding Indian gaming within its borders.
Wisconsin officials have been closely monitoring a casino expansion bill that is currently on hold in neighboring Illinois after that bill failed to make it to a vote before the legislature’s spring term wrapped up at the end of last month.
That measure, known as Senate Bill 1739, calls for the construction of five new land-based casinos in Illinois. One of those five casinos would be located in Rockford, Illinois, not far from the Wisconsin city of Beloit, where talks are underway regarding the possibility of a new tribal casino.
