Las Vegas Shooting

What started out as a celebration of a memorable and proud moment turned into a harrowing experience for a group of Marshall residents attending the Dance America National Finals in Las Vegas, Nev., early Friday.

A few hours after Ashley Louwagie and Andrew Frerich received their first and third runner-up awards for national female and male dancers of the year, the Louwagies — Pat, Jackie, Jordan, Ashley and Alyssa — along with Gene, Pam, Eric and Darryl Coudron, Keith Graven and Brittany Kurtenbach, found themselves in the middle of a shooting at the New York-New York casino.

The gunman wounded five people after opening fire from a walkway over the casino floor before he was tackled by a group of off-duty police officers and military personnel, police said.

Police said 16 shots were fired, and twice revised the number of injured in the 12:45 a.m. shooting. All the injuries were described as minor, and none of the victims remained hospitalized Friday morning, authorities said.

No one from the Marshall group was injured.

“At first we thought it was fireworks, because we heard the ‘pop’ ‘pop,’” Jackie Louwagie told the Independent on Friday. “But when we realized what it was, we dove under some tables. I’m surprised he didn’t hit more people.”

“It’s crazy out here and we’re anxious to come home, not that we weren’t having a good time.”

Jackie Louwagie said the group, which was staying at the Riviera Hotel and Casino, was unwinding from Friday’s dance event and decided to take in some of the Vegas nightlife. What they got, after their ride on the hotel’s roller-coaster and some dinner, was a harrowing ordeal they’re not likely to soon forget.

“It was a terrifying experience,” Jackie Louwagie said. “We were eating pizza, and all of a sudden we heard the music stop in the nightclub and someone came in and said ‘take cover.’ My husband dove on top of the girls to protect them. There were people knocking over tables and chairs to use for cover. My girls were screaming, everyone was screaming and running everywhere.

“I saw an exit and we decided to run for it,” she added. “My life flashed before my eyes, and my main thought was, ‘take me, don’t take my kids.’”

Las Vegas police Capt. James Dillon said a woman and a teen-age boy were wounded; a man was grazed by a bullet; a woman was hit by a bullet fragment or shrapnel; and a woman was bruised and scraped when she fell amid the crowd of people exiting the casino.

Steven Zegrean, 51, of Las Vegas, was arrested on felony charges including attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm in an occupied structure, Dillon said.

‘‘It seems like some local guy who snapped and went to the hotel to do it,’’ Denby said.

The casino remained opened, and Denby said investigators were interviewing witnesses.

The 2,000-room casino, which opened in 1997, features a facade replicating the New York City skyline, with a 47-story knockoff of the Empire State Building, a 150-foot Statue of Liberty and a Coney Island-style roller coaster. It is owned by MGM Mirage Inc.

Casino spokeswoman Yvette Monet said its operations had been fully restored Friday morning.

Jackie Louwagie said the shaken group is eager to get back home to Marshall after their big-city experience.

“It was a terrifying experience,” she said. “We had such a great day with Ashley being the first runner-up. To be in something like that is really traumatic. We felt like sitting ducks. I felt so helpless. I mean, what do you do — do you stay there, do you get out? It was like we were in a scene from a movie. It’s been quite a roller-coaster ride out here. We’re thankful to live in Minnesota.”