I don’t believe officials are withholding intel on Stephen Paddock’s motivation for mass murder. I did at first, back when the Las Vegas Gaming Commission revealed that Mr. Paddock had made sixteen $10,000-or-more “transactions” with various casinos — most likely losses — before he opened fire on the crowd below his 32nd floor hotel room. Once I learned that he’d scoped out other, non-Vegas venues for a potential high vantage point attack, I concluded . . .
that even if Mr. Paddock had racked up significant gambling debts, he wasn’t trying to punish Sin City in general or the Mandalay Bay hotel in particular for his presumed penury. A motive that Las Vegas would not want to see the light of day, for obvious reasons.
That said, it would be helpful to know exactly how much money Mr. Paddock lost in the casinos, which casinos [may have] held paper on him, and whether or not he was broke when he killed himself.
Anyway, while I don’t think the authorities are suppressing evidence of Mr. Paddock’s motivations, I’m entirely convinced that the police and hotel are hiding their response to the incident. The ever-changing timeline — no less than three separate versions so far — and the lack of crucial information about the sequence of events within the hotel indicate that there’s something rotten in the city state of Vegas.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m open to the possibility that the conflicting and incomplete information provided by Clark County Sheriff Lombardo to the press is the result of simple gross incompetence — despite (or because of) the Sheriff’s tearful defense of his investigators.
But what are we to make of the disappearance of Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos?
David Hickey, president of the Security, Police, and Fire Professionals of America union, said it had been four days since he last saw Jesus Campos.
“We have had no contact with him…. Clearly, somebody knows where he is,” he said.
Hickey said he was with Campos on Thursday, coordinating a series of interviews that the guard was scheduled to give about the attack. They included appearances on the Sean Hannity show on Fox, as well as news shows on CNN, CBS, ABC and NBC. Campos was staying in a suite in a [unnamed] Las Vegas hotel, Hickey said.
Hickey [above] said he was attending a meeting with MGM representatives in one room of the suite as Campos waited with a security guard — hired by MGM — and another union member in the living room.
When the meeting ended about 2 p.m., Hickey said Campos was no longer in the room.
“When I got in touch with the other [unnamed] union member, I was told Campos was taken to the Quick Care health clinic, Hickey said. He didn’t hear from the guard afterward and announced to a scrum of reporters that night that Campos had canceled interviews.
Multiple requests from Fox News for SPFPA to comment on the matter were not returned Monday.
As you know, Mr. Campos was the security guard who approached shooter Stephen Paddock’s room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel after Paddock opened fire. I mean, six minutes before he opened fire. Or was that forty seconds before?
Those are the three accounts of Mr. Campos’ encounter with Mr Paddock. The first was based on God knows what. Sheriff Lombardo says he based the second “official” timeline on erroneously recorded written information in a security log book. The third timeline was initially provided by the hotel’s owners, then confirmed by Sheriff Lombardo citing a time stamp on Campos’ cell phone.
Bottom line: we need to hear from Mr. Campos himself what happened on that horrible, fateful night. Only we can’t, can we? Or can we? snopes.com reports that the Las Vegas police’s Information Officer told them that Mr. Campos isn’t missing.
LVMPD officer Larry Hadfield [below] told us that Campos is not missing, and reiterated that Paddock had no accomplices when he rained bullets down on the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Hadfield told us, flat-out:
[Campos] is not missing. He’s not under arrest. We tell people what we know. If they don’t believe it but they’re going to believe whatever web site, then I don’t know what else to tell you.
So Mr. Campos got cold feet on his media appearances. He’s holed up, not pushing up cacti somewhere in the Nevada desert. But he can’t stay stum forever.
There are some 604 direct victims of Mr. Paddock’s attack, and literally thousands who can justifiably claim mental anguish. One way or another, they will be represented in court. Mr. Campos’s testimony about the Mandalay Bay hotel’s reaction to the shooter on the 32nd floor could cost — or save — MGM billions of dollars.
Watch this space.