Las Vegas police video released
The body-camera images show officers entering the hotel room used by shooter Stephen Paddock.
LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas Police Department on Wednesday released the first body-camera video of officers breaching and entering the hotel room that Stephen Paddock used as a perch to kill 58 people at a country music concert last year.
The videos come from the body cameras of Las Vegas police officers Joshua Bitsko and David Newton. Officials said the first officer into the room didn’t have his body camera turned on.
Paddock wounded more than 700 people in the attack at the Route 91 Harvest music festival that was attended by about 22,000 people on Oct. 1. It was the largest mass shooting in modern American history.
The release came after police failed to convince the Nevada Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that ordered authorities to make the hundreds of hours of body-camera video and 911 calls public.
Police officials said because of the volume of videos, 911 calls and documents, the public release of the items would continue on a rolling basis over the coming months. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Tuesday that the next round of releases would probably be in two weeks.
Wednesday’s release included about three hours of body-camera video. There is an estimated 750 hours of body-camera video, according to court documents filed by Las Vegas police attorneys.
A portion of video details the entry from the Mandalay Bay hallway on the 32nd floor to Paddock’s suite. At one point, an officer’s voice can be heard saying, “Breach. Breach. Breach.” Then an explosion goes off. Within seconds, the hotel alarm begins to whine and a recorded voice begins to alert guests.
Officers then make their way past a dining cart.
“I think it might be a camera of some sort,” an officer on the team says, looking at it. It was — Paddock had wired it to see if anyone was approaching.
In moments, they’re in one of the rooms of the suite. After carefully moving around the room, a voice says, “Let me check under the bed.”
“Watch these closets. Watch your back,” another officer says.
Little is known about what motivated Paddock to unleash his attack. Even with the recent release of security camera video at Mandalay Bay, the shooter cuts an unassuming image as he drinks, gambles and chats with staff at the hotel. At several points, he’s seen bringing cartloads of luggage up to the room.
But between 10:05 and 10:16 p.m., according to the department’s preliminary investigative report, Paddock riddled the crowd with bullets — sending terrified concertgoers fleeing for cover. He also shot down the hallway on the 32nd floor, striking Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos in the leg.
A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department strike team that included four officers ultimately reached Paddock’s suit. According to the report, no shots had been fired from Paddock’s room for about 40 minutes when they reached the 32nd f loor. When they entered the suit, they found Paddock dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Inside the main living area of the suite, police found 18 rifles and a handgun. There were five more guns in another room. Several hundred rounds of ammunition were also found in the hotel room. Search warrants showed there were 20 2-pound containers of exploding targets and 10 1pound containers of exploding targets in his parked vehicle at the Mandalay Bay Resort.
Search warrants also revealed laptop computers and cellphones were seized from the room and a hard drive contained images of child pornography.