Officials again change timeline of Las Vegas massacre
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas investigators offered a new version of events Friday in a shifting timeline surrounding the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history as they described how the gunman opened fire on airport jet fuel tanks near the Vegas Strip massacre scene and on arriving police officers.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo held a news conference alongside the top FBI agent in Las Vegas as questions remained about whether police could have done more to stop gunman Stephen Paddock on Oct. 1.
They provided no new information about Paddock’s motivation for killing 58 people at a country music festival. Lombardo again revised the number of injured, to 546, with 45 people still hospitalized, including some in critical condition.
The sheriff said a visual inspection during a coroner’s autopsy found “no abnormalities” in Paddock’s brain.
Paddock’s body is being sent to Stanford University for study, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said. He added that he would await findings of multiple forensic analyses, including a neuropathological examination of Paddock’s brain tissue, before issuing a finding on a cause and manner of his death. That ruling is not expected for several months, the coroner said.
Lombardo confirmed that from his Las Vegas hotel room, Paddock targeted jet fuel tanks at the nearby airport and said Paddock took shots at police officers arriving in the area of the massacre scene, possibly to keep them from rushing into his room.
The sheriff became emotional describing gunshot wounds one on-duty officer, Brady Cook, received in the shoulder, the biceps, the chest and the back as he arrived in a police patrol car moments after
the shooting started.
“It is readily apparent to me that [Paddock] adjusted his fire and directed it toward the police vehicles,” Lombardo said. “No matter what his personal vendetta is against the police or not, maybe he was preventing the wolf from getting to his door sooner than later, but he chose to fire upon police vehicles.”
Nearly two weeks after the massacre, questions remain. Police and the FBI say they’re still at a loss to explain his motive but said they have found no signs that he had ideologies or connections to any groups.
In a chronology provided Monday, Lombardo had said Paddock started spraying 200 rounds from his suite into the hallway of the Mandalay Bay at 9:59 p.m. Oct. 1, wounding an unarmed security guard in the leg.
He said Friday that the security guard went to a barricaded stairwell door at 9:59 p.m. and wasn’t shot until around 10:05 p.m.
About that time, the gunman unleashed a barrage of bullets on the festival crowd. Then he killed himself with a gunshot in the head.
Lombardo’s latest version of events aligns with what Mandalay Bay owner MGM Resorts International said Thursday. It had disputed whether six minutes actually passed between the first shots in the hallway and the start of the concert rampage, and said Paddock may have wounded the security guard within 40 seconds of firing into the crowd.
Lombardo also pushed back against criticism of his office over whether more could have been done to stop the shooter.
“In the public space, the word ‘incompetent’ has been brought forward. I am absolutely offended with that characterization,” he said.
The 10-minute attack on the crowd began at 10:05 p.m., when the 64-year-old real estate investor and retired accountant began firing more than 1,000 rounds from two bashed-out windows in the hotel, police said. Officers didn’t arrive on the 32nd floor until 10:17 p.m., two minutes after he had stopped shooting, according to Lombardo.
The wounded Campos used his radio to call for help, the statement said. A maintenance worker, Stephen Schuck, has said he also called for help on his radio, asking a dispatcher to call the police because someone was shooting a rifle on the 32nd floor.
It’s not clear what Mandalay Bay maintenance and security workers did with those messages from the guard and maintenance worker.
The sheriff, who has become a regular on news channels since the shooting, also said the FBI is now taking on a greater role in the investigation.
The FBI again pleaded for the public’s help.
“We continue to ask you if you have factual information in furtherance of this investigation, please call us. If you know something, say something,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Aaron Rouse said.
The FBI said agents have conducted hundreds of interviews, chased nearly 2,000 leads, looked at Paddock’s computers and phone, collected 1,000 pieces of evidence, and analyzed hours of video footage.
“We are establishing a timeline of this suspect’s life, his motivation and everybody associated with him throughout time,” Lombardo said. Information for this article was contributed by Sally Ho, Kate Brumback, Michelle Price and Sadie Gurman of The Associated Press.