Police weren’t called until six minutes after Stephen Paddock (pictured) started shooting into the crowd, despite hotel security knowing he was armed and dangerous, authorities have said
Federal officials have confirmed that Mandalay Bay hotel officials didn’t notify police about a security guard being shot in the hallway by Stephen Paddock until after he opened fire on the crowd at a country music festival outside.
This confirmation means there could have been a delay of at least six minutes in calling the police of what turned into the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
The federal official was briefed by law enforcement but wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Over the past week, Las Vegas police have worked with the Mandalay Bay’s corporate parent MGM Resorts international to put together the most precise timeline possible.
In the most recent timeline presented by investigators Paddock shot 200 rounds into the hallway of the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay.
He hit an unarmed security guard, Jesus Campos, who quickly called down to his officials to tell them what happened. Six minutes later Paddock unleashed his barrage of bullets on the festival crowd, killing 59 people and injuring nearly 500.
Guard Jesus Campos approached Paddock’s room down the corridor, investigating an alarm – likely due to Paddock tampering with the doorway to the stairwell next to his suite. Paddock then fired on him at 9:59pm, and opened fire on people below at 10:05pm
Windows of the Mandalay Bay hotel room from where Stephen Paddock launched his assault on concert goers
On Wednesday, an anonymous source revealed that new phone records show that Mandalay Bay hotel workers didn’t call police until after Paddock opened fire on the concert-goers below, despite knowing Campos had been shot.
Additionally, security staffers apparently didn’t call police when a different Mandalay Bay maintenance engineer, Stephen Schuck, called down to tell them Paddock was firing at him.
‘Call the police, someone is firing a gun up here. Someone is firing a rifle on the 32nd floor down the hallway,’ Schuck can be heard saying on new audio tapes released by the hotel on Wednesday.
Schuck told 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 hotel security guard, Jesus Campos, 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.’
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, pictured, special agent in charge for the FBI in Nevada, discusses the Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting on Monday
Engineer Stephen Schuck (pictured) said he was checking out a report of a jammed fire door on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay when he heard gunshots and saw shot security guard Jesus Campos, who told him to take cover
Over the past week, Las Vegas police have worked with the Mandalay Bay’s corporate parent MGM Resorts international to put together the most precise timeline possible. Pictured a group of people carrying someone who had been injured by gunfire in the October 1 shooting
In the most recent timeline presented by investigators Paddock shot 200 rounds into the hallway of the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay. He hit an unarmed security guard, Jesus Campos, and six minutes unleashed his barrage of bullets on the festival crowd, killing 59 people and injuring nearly 500. Pictured are some of the wounded after the shooting stopped that night
MGM would not answer questions about whether the hotel called the police about the hallway shooting in the few minutes before the massacre began.
The company said on Monday that the chronology given by police ‘might be inaccurate,’ but didn’t give any details as to what they mean by that or what, specifically, is wrong with it.
‘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.’
Chad Pinkerton, attorney for Paige Gasper, a California college student who was shot under the arm during in the attack, has said that if this new timeline is accurate those six minutes could have made all the difference.
‘These people that were killed and injured deserve to have those six minutes to protect them,’ Pinkerton said.
‘We lost those six minutes.’
But Ron Hosko, a former FBI assistant director who has worked on SWAT teams, said the six minutes wouldn’t have been enough time for officers to stop the attack.
Rather than rush in without a game plan, police would have been formulating the best response to the barricaded gunman, he said.
‘Maybe that’s enough time to get the first patrolman onto the floor but the first patrolman is not going to go knock on that customer’s door and say ‘What’s going on with 200 holes in the door?” Hosko said.
MGM would not answer questions about whether the hotel called the police about the hallway shooting in the few minutes before the massacre began. Pictured are victims lying on the ground during the gunfire
Investigators have yet to figure out what drove Paddock to mass murder, or what made him stop firing
Las Vegas shooting victim Kurt Fowler embraces his 10-year-old daughter Timori Fowler during a country music performance at Sunrise Hospital on Wednesday in Las Vegas
The timeline given by police earlier this week differed dramatically from the one they gave last week – that Paddock shot through his door and wounded the guard, Jesus Campos, after he had opened fire on the crowd
Investigators have yet to figure out what drove Paddock to mass murder, or what made him stop firing.
The 64-year-old high-stakes gambler and real estate investor began his 10-minute attack on the crowd at 10.05 pm, firing more than 1,000 rounds from his bashed-out windows, police said.
Police didn’t arrive on the 32nd floor until 10.17pm., two minutes after he had stopped shooting.
The timeline given by police earlier this week differed dramatically from the one they gave last week – that Paddock shot through his door and wounded the guard, Jesus Campos, after he had opened fire on the crowd.
Also Thursday, a funeral was held for Erick Silva, a 21-year-old security guard at the festival who was shot in the head while helping people climb over a barricade to escape the gunfire.
Dozens of fellow ‘yellow shirt’ security guards were among the hundreds of mourners at the service, where Silva was hailed as a hero.
‘We counted on him, and he didn’t let us down,’ said his boss, Gina Argento.