Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Worker says he told hotel to call 911 before rampage
A maintenance worker said Wednesday he told hotel dispatchers to call police and report a gunman had opened fire with a rifle inside Mandalay Bay before the shooter began firing from his high-rise suite into a crowd at a nearby musical festival.
The revised timeline has renewed questions about whether better communication might have allowed police to respond more quickly and take out the gunman before he committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Worker Stephen Schuck told NBC News that he was checking out a report of a jammed fire door on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay when he heard gunshots and a hotel security guard, who had been shot in the leg, peeked out from an alcove and told him to take cover.
“As soon as I started to go to a door to my left the rounds started coming down the hallway,” Schuck said. “I could feel them pass right behind my head.
“It was kind of relentless so I called over the radio what was going on,” he said. “As soon as the shooting stopped we made our way down the hallway and took cover again and then the shooting started again.”
Police said Monday they believe gunman Stephen Paddock shot a hotel security guard through the door of his suite six minutes before he unleashed a barrage of bullets into the crowd of concertgoers, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds more.
The injured guard used his radio and possibly a hallway phone to also call hotel dispatchers for help.
That account differs from the one police gave last week when they said Paddock fired through the door of his room and injured the unarmed guard after shooting into the crowd.
The company that owns Mandalay Bay has questioned the new timeline.
“We cannot be certain about the most recent timeline,” said Debra DeShong, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts International. “We believe what is currently being expressed may not be accurate.”
Las Vegas police did not respond Tuesday night to questions about the hotel’s statement.
It was unclear if the hotel relayed the information to Las Vegas police, who did not respond to questions about whether hotel security or anyone else in the hotel called 911 to report the gunfire.
Undersheriff Kevin McMahill defended the hotel and said the encounter between Paddock and the security guard and maintenance man disrupted the gunman’s plans.
Paddock fired more than 1,000 bullets and had more than 1,000 rounds left in his room, the undersheriff said. “I can tell you I’m confident that he was not able to fully execute his heinous plan, and it certainly had everything to do with being disrupted,” McMahill said.
The six minutes that passed between the hallway shooting and the start of the rampage wouldn’t have been enough time for officers to stop the attack, said Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Paul Ryan said new federal rules would be “the smartest, quickest” way to regulate the device the gunman in the Las Vegas massacre used to heighten his firepower.
It remains unclear, however, what if any action the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will take on socalled bump stocks.
The agency has said that once it issues a ruling on a weapon or equipment, it revises its stance only if gun laws or the equipment itself have changed.
The bureau decided in 2010 that bump stocks did not violate federal law, and gun statutes and the design of the mechanism have been unchanged since then. Ryan, R-Wis., said lawmakers are trying to figure out why the bureau has allowed the sale of bump stocks.
“This is a regulation that probably shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” Ryan told reporters.