They spent the weekend rafting the Truckee River and reminiscing about their years together, a group of childhood friends who had grown up in Southern California and had flown to Reno, Nev., to celebrate another of life’s milestones.
The men in their early 30s had come for a bachelor party weekend, and their guard might have been higher amid the casino bustle the night before. But in the brisk Monday morning air, during a casino’s quietest hours, the friends were simply trying to catch a short Uber ride to the airport.
That’s when a man walked up, seemingly out of nowhere, and shot several of them in what the police described as a random attack.
Two of the friends died. Two people were severely injured, and a third had minor injuries. Another man, driving through the parking lot, was shot dead at random shortly thereafter, the authorities said.
It was an immensely tragic end to a weekend that had been intended to celebrate the start of a new marriage.
“I’ve seen these guys growing up,” said Scott Juceam, the uncle of one of the men who were shot and hospitalized. “They’re very close — they’ve known each other most of their lives. It’s just terrible.”
The two friends who died were identified by the Sparks Police Department on Tuesday as Andrew Canepa, 33, and Justin Agulia, 33, who both lived in Southern California. The driver who was killed in the parking lot was Angel Martinez, 66, a resident of the Reno area.
The gunman shot five people near the entrance to the Grand Sierra Resort on Monday morning before he was chased off by a security guard. As he fled to the northern part of the parking lot, he ducked behind another vehicle and shot Mr. Martinez several times before he was shot and apprehended by Reno Police Department officers.
The police identified the suspect on Tuesday as Dakota Hawver, a 26-year-old resident of the Reno area, who is still hospitalized in critical condition. He had no criminal history and no known connection to any of the victims, according to the Sparks Police Department, which is handling the case because Reno officers shot the gunman.
The motive for the attack remained unclear.
The friends had arrived in Reno on Friday to celebrate the upcoming wedding of a friend who now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Several of them had attended high school together in Thousand Oaks, a suburb roughly 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Among them was Matt Sitler, 33, who was waiting at the valet station with Mr. Canepa when the gunman shot his friend. Mr. Sitler instinctively dropped to the ground, but the gunman then shot Mr. Sitler at least two times, said Mr. Juceam, his uncle.
“Everyone started running,” Mr. Juceam said in an interview on Tuesday as he relayed details from Mr. Sitler, who was talking beside him in his hospital bed in Reno. “It was kind of pandemonium for the boys. They all went in different directions.”
Mr. Sitler, 33, had emergency surgery to remove his spleen and was recovering in the intensive care unit with a lung injury on Tuesday. His uncle predicted a weekslong recovery but said Mr. Sitler’s condition was improving.
“He’s kind of our miracle right now,” Mr. Juceam said. “No one deserves this kind of thing.”
Mr. Juceam said he was grieving alongside the parents whose sons had not survived. He called Mr. Canepa “an amazing young man” and said he was like a member of his own family.
He said that when Mr. Sitler was first able to speak after the attack, his mind had gone straight to Mr. Canepa. “Is Andrew OK?” he asked from his hospital bed.
Mr. Canepa, who was the father to a young son, loved cooking and was a co-owner of a cafe in Newbury Park, Calif. At his restaurant, Side Street Cafe, lilies, roses and chrysanthemums amassed on Tuesday at the front door as word of his death spread. A customer who pulled into the parking lot with her son to have lunch learned of his death as she saw a large poster of him on the door of the cafe, which had closed early because of the tragedy.
“We are in shock,” said the customer, Gesi Vitela, who added that she had been coming to the cafe for years because Mr. Canepa knew exactly what foods her 14-year-old diabetic son could safely eat.
Rick Bucaria, who owns a T-shirt printing business next door to the cafe, said that Mr. Canepa had helped raise money for the victims of a 2018 mass shooting at a country-western-themed bar in Thousand Oaks that killed 13 people. He sold “Thousand Oaks Strong” T-shirts at the cafe, he said.
“He was so supportive with the families and those affected in the community,” Mr. Bucaria said. “Here it is seven years later nearly, and it happened to Andrew.”
The family of Mr. Martinez could not be reached immediately Tuesday night after he had been identified as a shooting victim.
The police said on Tuesday that Mr. Hawver, the suspect, had two years ago legally purchased the 9-millimeter handgun that was used in the attack. He is accused of firing approximately 80 rounds on Monday, according to police.
The Grand Sierra Resort opened in 1978 as the MGM Grand Reno and was envisioned as a major resort, with more than 1,000 rooms and a long-running show called “Hello Hollywood Hello” that was a signature draw. The resort still stands tall in the Reno landscape, situated a few miles from the downtown casinos.
On Tuesday at the Grand Sierra Resort, valet services returned to the west-facing main entrance where the shooting had taken place, after they had been temporarily relocated to the south entrance. Four bullet holes were still visible along the side of a planter box where the bachelor party group had been fired upon.
Mr. Juceam, who works with his nephew at his tax business, said he worried about the emotional wounds that his nephew and the other men had suffered.
“It’s horrible, and it’s going to stick with him for a long time,” he said.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Soumya Karlamangla is a Times reporter who covers California. She is based in the Bay Area.
Orlando Mayorquín is a Times reporter covering California. He is based in Los Angeles.
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