BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — At first, Justin Lampert thought the popping sounds he heard were coming from an electronic game at the Las Vegas casino where he had been eating a hot dog. When a crowd of panicked people stampeded past, he realized it was something more serious.

It was then the Iraq war veteran saw a bearded, older man, dressed in a light-colored trench coat, walking behind the fleeing casino-goers. Lampert said the man’s hair was tousled as if he’d just gotten out of bed, and his stroll and nonchalant demeanor was a sharp contrast to the chaos.

He passed Lampert on his right, about 20 yards away, then turned to look at him. Lampert saw a 9 mm pistol and observed the man attempting to reload.

“He said, ‘I’m going to … kill you,”’ Lampert said Saturday. “We made eye contact and I took off after him. I just kind of dumped him.”

Lampert was the first tackler among a group of men who subdued Steven Zegrean, 51, of Las Vegas, accused of wounding four people in a random fusillade of bullets early Friday at the New York-New York casino. No one was seriously hurt.

Lampert, 24, is a staff sergeant in the North Dakota Army National Guard and a student at North Dakota State University, majoring in zoology with a minor in criminal justice. He hopes to graduate this winter.   …..more