Ryan Brown’s Vehicle Stopped near the Bell Desk at the Stratosphere Casino
Drug tests and criminals charges against the man who crashed his vehicle through the front doors at the Stratosphere were not prepared at the time of his death. The man, 40-year old Ryan C. Brown, committed suicide and was found hanging in his hotel room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino last Tuesday. The Clarke County coroner has ruled his death a suicide.
The motivations behind the series of crimes which led to his death are not altogether clear, and might never be totally settled. The casinos which were the scene of his final arrest and suicide appear to have been backdrop and not a part of a wider story.
Brown Freed without Restrictions
Last Monday, a Nevada judge had freed Mr. Brown without restrictions. At the time, the judge had sat October 15 as the date for charges to be filed against Brown. Drug tests had been performed on Ryan Brown in preparation for the case, but the results of those tests won’t be known for a time.
Looking back, there were signs Ryan Brown was not stable. Brown had said he wanted to jump from the tower of the Stratosphere, a casino on the Las Vegas Strip. He was unable to make good on those threats, because he was quickly detained after crashing his automobile into the Stratosphere.
Ryan Brown’s Incarceration
After his arrest, Ryan Brown was held for 5 days in a local jail. Police were holding him on suspicion of felony cocaine possession. He was also being held on misdemeanor charges, including driving under the influence and reckless driving.
A public defender asked on Thursday whether Brown had been properly screened for mental illness. The same lawyer also asked on Thursday why charges had not been filed against Ryan Brown before he had died. In their turn, the district attorney and a police spokesman answered both questions, saying in either case, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
District Attorney Explains the Delay
District Attorney Steve Wolfson says the prosecutors could have filed the lesser charges separately in a lower court, so the delay might have been a desire to keep the case together “in order to be efficient to the court and fair to the defendant.”
The district attorney went on to explain the delays in the drug testing and how that was related to the delay in filing charges. Without the results of the drug tests, prosecutors did not have the necessary tools to file charges. “We didn’t have the evidence to charge him…because of the need to wait for the toxicology report on the drug charge,” said Steve Wolfson.
Not Your Normal Time Table
In other words, the usual procedures were being taken, but most cases have plenty of time for toxicology reports to return from the lab. The swiftness of Ryan Brown’s death assured that would not be the case, though it is hardly surprising that the lab reports weren’t ready.
Clark County Jail is the facility responsible for screening prisoners for mental illness and suicidal tendencies. According to Las Vegas police spokesman Officer Larry Hadfield, mental illness itself is not a reason to hold a person. A suspect must exhibit suicidal tendencies before procedures are enacted.
Crash at the Stratosphere
No one was injured in the original crash at the Stratosphere, though people on the scene said it appeared to be deliberate. The vehicle came to a stop near the bell desk in the front lobby, so people easily could have been injured. At the time Ryan Brown was arrested, he told officers he had been using drugs for 6 consecutive days and he had smoked crack about 2 hours before the crash. A search of Brown’s car revealed 1 gram of crack cocaine in the vehicle’s ashtray.
It is unclear if Ryan Brown had motives for crashing into the Stratosphere or committing suicide inside his hotel room at the Rio. Multiple reports of his case have surfaced, but none mention problem gambling, an employment history at the Las Vegas Strip casinos, or other obvious motivations for disgruntlement.
Given that Brown had been using drugs for the last six days of his life, his focus on the Vegas casinos is unlikely to be connected to any conventional motivations. The Stratosphere, The Rio, and other Vegas Strip properties welcome millions of people each year, and some of these people inevitably will have issues. In the tragic case of Ryan Brown, the man appears to have been suffering from a combination of addiction and depression.
