Surveillance video

Las Vegas, America, 18 December 2011

Luke Shawley, a San Diego-based U.S. Navy SEAL was given a short sentence this week for attacking eight people including a Gujarati NRI Gaurav Desai during a drunken rampage on the Las Vegas trip. Shawley was in Las Vegas for training at Nellis Air Force Base.

“I was struck completely out of the blue. I don’t recall anything. I lost consciousness instantaneously,” victim Gaurav Desai testified.

Gaurav Desai is from Chicago and he just crumpled to the ground after the pipe was smashed into his face by 6-foot, 200-lb. US Navy Seal Shawley.

Shawley’s attacks including an attack on Desai were captured on surveillance video from the Venetian Hotel and the Tao Nightclub.

Surveillance video showed Luke Shawley, an active duty SEAL at that time, consumed eight or nine cocktails made with Jack Daniel’s Whiskey and Coke. At one point in the video, Shawley is seen putting his head down on the bar. The video also shows Shawley mixing and mingling with other bar patrons.

At about 3:30 a.m., video shows Shawley walking on an outside bridge swinging a pipe. The video showed him swinging the pipe at a 67-year-old woman, who falls after she’s hit. Seconds later, video shows him approaching a couple, raising the pipe and hitting the man on the head. The man drops to the ground with his face bleeding.

The video shows Shawley attacking bystanders with a 2- to 3-foot pipe in March 2010. Prosecutors said Shawley consumed 20 alcoholic drinks before the violent spree.

At least eight people were hurt in the rampage.

His lawyers contended someone had slipped the drug Ecstasy in one of his drinks. While a blood test revealed nothing, traces of Ecstasy were found in his hair.

Shawley initially faced 15 years in a Nevada prison after being convicted in August on seven counts of battery with a deadly weapon.

However, Clark County District Court Judge James Bixler sentenced him to just 56 days in jail.

Bixler said he took into account Shawley’s spotless record and his past as a Navy SEAL.

Shawley was ordered to not drink alcohol and was told he must remain in school, stay working or perform community service.

It is possible Shawley will be released from jail due to overcrowding when he returns in January to serve his sentence.