We’re gleaning new facts from the new official Clark County Sheriff’s timeline for the Las Vegas shooting. At 9:59 pm local time, spree killer Stephen Paddock shoots Mandalay Bay security officer Jesus Campos. At 10:15, two police officers arrived on the 31st floor, one floor below the killer’s hotel room. At 10:17, after the shooting had stopped . . .
those two police officers arrived on the 32nd floor. At 10:18 pm, Campos told police he was shot and gave them the location of the gunman’s room.
Despite having one of their employees shot by the killer directly outside his room, Mandalay Bay security failed to identify the killer’s room to the police for 19 minutes, until after the shooter stopped.
As the two police officers arrived at the wrong floor at 10:15 — two minutes before the shooting stopped — it’s entirely possible they could have done something to distract or stop Paddock if they’d been directed straight to the killer’s room.
That said, we don’t know Campos’ condition immediately after the shooting. Was he in shock? Was he treating a serious leg wound? We don’t know his location after he was shot, who (if anyone) attended to his wound, if he had a working radio, and what he may have reported on the radio if he did.
Not to mention the fog of war.
Communication is often the first thing to go wrong during a violent attack. But it’s still shocking that 19 minutes elapsed before Mandalay Bay security communicated the life-or-death room info to police on the scene.
There are lessons to be learned from the response to this attack, just as there were after the Pulse night club slaughter. But if the cops and authorities treat the Vegas shooting like the Orlando massacre, mistakes made will be quietly swept under the carpet. Benefitting no one but the officers and politicians involved.