Shooting, standoff ends with arrest of Nevada brothel worker
YERINGTON, Nev. (AP) — A worker at a legal brothel in Northern Nevada was arrested early Tuesday after a shooting and hours-long standoff with sheriff’s deputies, authorities said.
No one was injured, and Lyon County Sheriff Brad Pope said there was no threat to the public following the arrest of 28-year-old Moonlite Bunny Ranch worker Savannah Henderson, of Dayton, by sheriff’s SWAT officers and first-responders from several other agencies.
Henderson, who also uses the name Tiara Tae, was being held Tuesday at the Lyon County Jail on more than $86,000 bail pending an initial court appearance on multiple felony shooting and drug charges, and misdemeanor charges of discharging a firearm and resisting arrest, the sheriff’s office said.
It was not immediately clear if Henderson had a lawyer who could comment on her behalf.
Sheriff’s deputies on Monday night responded to a report about a dispute between co-workers and gunshots fired at the brothel in Mound House, Pope said in a statement.
Arriving deputies reported hearing several more gunshots and began evacuating the business while Henderson retreated into a room, the sheriff said. She surrendered about three hours later.
Pope said Lyon County sheriff’s crisis negotiators were joined at the scene by Nevada State Police, sheriff’s deputies and police from Carson City and the Washoe Tribal Police Department, and firefighters from regional agencies.
Nevada has about 20 legal brothels in several rural counties. Prostitution is not legal in the state’s two most populous counties — Clark and Washoe — or in the cities of Las Vegas and Reno.
The Moonlite Bunny Ranch is a short drive from the state capital, Carson City, and has a storied history. It was featured with flamboyant owner Dennis Hof from 2005 to 2007 in the HBO adult reality series “Cathouse.”
Hof ran as a Donald Trump-style Republican candidate for Nevada state Assembly in 2018 and won the election despite dying several weeks earlier while celebrating his 72nd birthday at another brothel he owned.
