Riverwind Casino is located in Norman. Carl Hopkins was from Edmond.
A man is dead inside the Riverwind Casino’s hotel after a standoff with local law enforcement. Carl Jack Hopkins, a 62-year old resident of Edmond, Oklahoma, barricaded himself inside his hotel room, then eventually shot and killed himself to end the standoff.
Carl Hopkin’s suicide is the second deadly incident in an Oklahoma casino this year, though the two situations were much different in their nature. The Riverwind Casino suicide appears to have been a case of a distraught man, while a murder/suicide in the Grand Casino was a falling out among friends.
Chickasaw Lighthorse Police and McClain County Sheriff’s deputies were on the scene when the standoff began around 10 pm on Monday night.
Police had to evacuate guests who were nearest to harm’s way, though police and casino staff claim that casino patrons were never in any immediate danger.
No Bystanders Harmed in Shooting
Police said no one else was injured in the situation. Authorities said they were called to the Hopkins’s hotel room after he began sending “Goodbye” messages to family members. Evacuation of the casino and hotel was done out of an abundance of caution, said police, and not because of any imminent danger to visitors.
For several hours, negotiators sought to communicate with the man. They hoped to get Hopkins to surrender without harming himself. In such situations where no one is in immediate danger, negotiators give the individual as much time as is needed for them to be talked out of taking their own life. Unfortunately, that tactic did not work in the case of Carl Hopkins.
Over the hours, Hopkins told the police negotiator he would come out of his room between 9:30 and 10:00, after he was finished with his pizza and the movie he was watching. Around 10:00, Hopkins told the negotiator that “he had a lot of problems”. At that point, he stopped talking to the police.
Carl Hopkins Took His Own Life
At that point, after hours of negotiations, officers said they heard a single gunshot. The police quickly entered the hotel room, but found Carl Hopkins dead of a single gunshot wound. Police are investigating to determine what might have driven Carl Joseph to take his own life, though negotiators likely have some idea about his state of mind in the last hours of his life.
Guns are illegal in casinos, but one would have to install metal detectors and add staff to enforce those laws. The Riverwind Casino and its hotel are in two separate buildings, so gamblers were not in any direct danger.
January 10 Shooting at Grand Casino
This is the second fatal gun incident in an Oklahoma casino within the past month. At the Grand Casino in Shawnee, one member of the security staff shot another member, then turned the gun on himself.
In that incident, 28-year-old Justin Wells shot 22-year-old Matt Palmer. Justin Wells then tried to commit suicide, but instead wounded himself badly enough he had to be rushed to the hospital. Because the shooting happened on reservation land, the FBI was called in to investigate the shooting.
Grand Casino Shooter Dies at the Hospital
One day later, on January 11, Justin Wells passed away due to his wounds. Matt Palmer’s father, Stacey Palmer, told the Shawnee News-Star that Wells and Palmer worked together and became friends, but that the two men’s friendship had ended by the time of the fatal shooting.
Stacey Palmer said of his deceased son, who was a 2012 graduate of Asher High School, “He was a pretty good athlete — he enjoyed hunting and fishing.” The grieving father said he and his son enjoyed going to Oklahoma Thunder games together.
The Palmer family is well-liked in the area. Members of the family work in law enforcement.
About Riverwind Casino
Riverwind Casino is a property of the Chickasaw Nation, which also owns the Winstar Casino in Thackerville. The Riverwind has 219,000 square feet of gaming space, which contains 2700 gaming machines, 20 table games, and a poker room. The casino also has an off-track racebook.
Besides its casino and hotel, the Riverwind is home to the Showplace Theatre and River Lounge, which feature musical acts, standup comedians, and other entertainers. The Showplace Theater is the larger venue of the two, while the River Lounge is a more intimate setting for smaller acts.
