Wednesday, October 4, 2017

What We Know, vs. What We're Told



First the story, as published in the Daily Beast
LAS VEGAS — Jesus Campos had no firearm when he found Stephen Paddock and approached his room on the 32rd floor of Mandalay Bay on Sunday night. Paddock, who had rigged cameras in the hallway and on the peephole of the door, saw Campos coming and fired through the door, hitting him in the leg, said Dave Hickey, president of the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America. The union represents Campos and hundreds of security guards at Mandalay Bay.
When Campos was hit, he radioed casino dispatch and told him his location — and Paddock’s.
We received information via their dispatch center...that helped us locate where this individual was sequestered,” Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters Tuesday.
Police officers who subsequently approached the room received gunfire and backed off until SWAT responded, Lombardo said.
“We would not have engaged this individual in the time lapse we did without their assistance,” Lombardo later added.
 
Paddock had somehow blocked stairwell doors leading to the hallway outside of his room, Hickey said, meaning Campos had to take the elevator on his quest to find the source of the gunfire that was killing dozens below. The door to the room itself was also barricaded, Campos found when he tried to open it, just before the bullets came through the door.  
About an hour after Paddock quit firing, a SWAT team gained entry to the suite by blowing the doors off with explosives. Paddock was found dead inside from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Without Campos' action, the mass murderer’s rampage that killed 58 people could have been even more deadly.
Now, what we really know:
 LAS VEGAS — Jesus Campos had no firearm when he found approached Room 32-135 on the 32rd floor of Mandalay Bay on Sunday night. 
The shooter inside, who had rigged cameras in the hallway and on the peephole of the door, saw Campos coming and fired through the door, hitting him in the leg, said Dave Hickey, president of the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America. The union represents Campos and hundreds of security guards at Mandalay Bay.  
Someone had somehow blocked stairwell doors leading to the hallway outside of his room, Hickey said, meaning Campos had to take the elevator on his quest to find the source of the gunfire that was killing dozens below. The door to the room itself was also barricaded, Campos found when he tried to open it, just before the bullets came through the door.
When Campos was hit, he radioed casino dispatch and told him his location — and the room where the gunfire came from. 
We received information via their dispatch center...that helped us locate where this individual was sequestered,” Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters Tuesday. 
Police officers who subsequently approached the room received gunfire and backed off until SWAT responded, Lombardo said. 
“We would not have engaged this individual in the time lapse we did without their assistance,” Lombardo later added. 
About an hour after the gunman quit firing, a SWAT team gained entry to the suite by blowing the doors off with explosives. Paddock was found dead inside from a presumed self-inflicted gunshot wound. Without Campos' action, the mass murderer’s rampage that killed 58 people could have been even more deadly.
Look at the difference.
Who shot Campos? (Someone in the room, obviously, but it's a friggin' cinch he didn't yell his name out, show his face, and wave ID before he fired through the door.)
Where was Campos after he was shot, and before police arrived?
Did he, cameras, or anybody have eyes on the stairwell and hallway doors the entire time?
If not, how long was that time lapse between the security guard's departure, and the arrival of LVMPD officers?
Was the other adjoining room door also blocked from the inside?
Did they secure the blocked stairwell door at that point or prior, and if not, at what point was the room, and its occupant(s), fully contained to anything short of disapparition or BASE jumping out the window?

Any time lag in observation and containment introduces the elephantine possibility that there was more than one shooter, which would take this story into orbit.

Assuming Paddock was the shooter, and was alone inside the room, and couldn't get out, then he had to have shot at the later-arriving officers.
(And presumably subsequently killed himself, despite having enough firepower to take on a platoon of combat troops, and knowing the eventual outcome, nothing else to lose by doing just that. WTF?)

So, did the officers holding down the perimeter hear that shot?
When?
 And if the cops had him penned in, why did it take SWAT another hour - after the room was well-known - to make a forcible entry?

So, yet again, one small piece-of-the-puzzle answer, ten more huge questions.

-----

Just for giggles:
It turns out that Mr. Mass Shooter's brother is also a multi-award-winning felon and jailbird, as well as his bank-robbing prison-breaking daddy.

One of the Las Vegas shooter's brothers has a long criminal rap sheet including charges for arson and theft and once declared personal bankruptcy. 
After Sunday's atrocity, Bruce Paddock spoke out to say he was shocked that his older brother Stephen could commit the mass slaughter. 
He said he and Stephen, 64, had not spoken for 10 years but revealed that he'd made millions through property deals. 
Now it can be revealed that Bruce, 57, has been arrested for at least four felonies. 
The charges are for a range of alleged crimes including the sale of marijuana, theft and burglary.
TMZ claims he also has been arrested for arson, criminal threats and driving on a suspended license. 
 

But this guy would rather eat his gun than face the cops, with an arsenal in hand?
Still not buying it.

21 comments:

Cavalryman40 said...

During the shooting, there were reports of gunfire at the Luxor, MGM, Aria, Tropicana, and I believe New York New York. Mass confusion, no saying there was any gunfire at any of these other properties, I am just saying panicked people heard the gun fire, and called it in all over. LVMPD was all over the southern end of the strip, and units were coming from other parts of town. Lombardo has said the SWAT team that entered Mandaly Bay was not the regular SWAT team. It was a hastily put together team made up of some SWAT officers, Patrol Officers and K-9 units. In other words metro was going 90 directions at once, and I am not sure they knew where in fact the actual shooters were. Remember they were getting calls they were everywhere. Mandaly Bay was just one place on the list. So I am not surprised it took some time to get them up there. They had to figure out where, get some people to form a team, gear up, and make a plan. I think that explains the delay.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they noticed (as you showed earlier) that with the stairs blocked, the trip up the hall would have left them significantly exposed, and vulnerable to significant overwhelming firepower. Since they likely had eyes on thar hallway from the casino security office, they knew anyone in the room couldn't leave unnoticed, so they spent a bit longer figuring out how to get in w/o getting very dead. We're still inside 72 hours, and should presume most if not everything coming out of the media is conjecture, wrong, or both. It's a damn casino, and they have cameras everywhere. So either we'll get a complete play-by-play that lines up with reality, or the MSM and investigating agencies will show their ass. I agree that there's a lot of WTF?!? generated by the current talking points, but we're still too close to have a good filter for the BS yet.

Cavalryman40 said...

Oh, and to further add to the confusion McCarren Airport, right next door, is the GA side of the field. Corporate Aviation Departments, the fleeing concert goers were scaling fences, breaking into hangers, taking equipment out on the ramp, and even running across active runways at one of the busiest airports in the country to get away from the gunfire. Alarms were going off everywhere. Mass confusion.

Cavalryman40 said...

Sorry, have to add, this was like some kind of movie, Chuck Norris Invasion USA or something like that. Gun fire being reported everywhere. Alarms going off everywhere. Ever been in a situation where shit is coming at you from all directions and you just have to stop what you are doing and process it all before you take action? I think that is probably what was going on at metro that night. They have never had anything like this. Actually I am kind of surprised they got up there as fast as they did. Kudos to them for getting their shit together. I wish I had some way to upload some photos, you could see just how crazy it was.

Cavalryman40 said...

Just goes to show, that in this country with a few million trained veterans and millions more people who have firearms, just how easy it would be if just a 500 determined people decided to, they could literally shut this country down. Imagine this happening in 100 cites at the same time?

Cavalryman40 said...

Plenty of time and confusion for the perps to make an exit. And leave the patsy with a ventilated skull in the room to slow the cops down.

Anonymous said...

" on his quest to find the source of the gunfire that was killing dozens below. The door to the room itself was also barricaded, Campos found when he tried to open it, just before the bullets came through the door."

I have issues with both sentences.

" on his quest to find the source of the gunfire that was killing dozens below." The other report, and much more likely report, was that the UNARMED, SINGLE GUARD was checking out the source of the SMOKE ALARM. You don't send one unarmed guard looking for a shooter. You do send him to see what dumbass has set off the smoke detector in his $700/night suite.



"door to the room itself was also barricaded, Campos found when he tried to open it"

This is narrative shaping thru word choice. Hotel security found the door LOCKED, and possibly with the dead bolt device engaged, is much more likely than a pile of furniture behind the door. Hotel security would have KNOCKED, and getting no response, would have master keyed the door open. Esp. if the shooter was interested in opening that door and shooting at anyone arriving later. At what point was he shot? After knocking? Identifying himself? Masterkeying the door open? The word "barricaded" evokes a lot of images and speaks to mental state...

n

Unknownsailor said...

It is known that spree shooters tend to self select when they face opposition. It is not surprising in the least that he killed himself once LEO showed up outside his door. As to the door to the room, dick head had screwed the door to the frame, some how. You are not going to kick or ram open a door secured like that.

Apparently the fumes from firing set off the smoke detector, so that is why the guard was there. Why he tried to open the door on an active shooter with a rifle only he knows.

Anonymous said...

So Paddock is willing to shoot one unarmed hotel security guard, but not take on a armed SWAT team that is making entry? Doesn't make sense.

Of course after shooting said guard he decides the game is up, and shoots himself? No. It really doesn't make sense.

Aesop said...

It is known that spree shooters tend to self select when they face opposition. It is not surprising in the least that he killed himself once LEO showed up outside his door.

Good point, but utterly irrelevant.
A guy who meticulously plans mass murder for weeks to months, and takes days to load in and prep it, going to the length of securing the emergency stairwell, and rig camera surveillance of all normal approaches to his sniper roost, is the utter antithesis of a "spree shooter", by any sane definition of the term.

You're not comparing apples to oranges, so much as comparing houseflies to houses.

Cavalryman40 said...

From Lombardo at the afternoon press conference going on right now. "you know from the past that we are not going to give out everything we know, and possibly tip off someone we are looking for.........."

Is Joe telling us they know there was another shooter? Who knows.

Edsss said...

If Paddock had his own set of cameras trained on the halls approaching the room and through the entry door. 1. What was he viewing the incoming imagery on? 2. Where are those cameras now? 3. Was there stored images on these cameras? The cameras could also be used for checking whether others exited the room before SWAT got on scene.

Welcome Black Carter said...

From the briefing: No recording/stored images. He viewed on a "baby monitor" (single?).

Anonymous said...

"'We would not have engaged this individual in the time lapse we did without their assistance,' Lombardo later added."

What language is this? Somebody please translate to English?

Norman said...

I doubt we'll ever find out, or at least never be told the truth, but how was the door to Paddocks' suite "barricaded"? If "screwed shut from inside" that precludes anyone from leaving the suite that way, but is the construction of the hotel such that it's possible to get into an adjacent room, either horizontally or vertically? Paddock did rent an adjacent suite - the one the door of which was directly opposite the stairwell door - was that door similarly "barricaded," and/or did Paddock have some sort of access to that suite from the end suite?

If there were other parties, they didn't have to get to the stairwell to escape, they could have just gone into a different room on that floor and pretended to be a regular guest. I'd think either hotel video, or Paddock's video, would show that movement.

The Gray Man said...

Casinos are JAM PACKED with surveillance cameras. We need to see that footage in order to get even a shred of truth about what's happening.

The Gray Man said...

Cops and other officials NEVER speak plainly. They always speak in bizarre patterns and phrases.

The Gray Man said...

The actual event is never going to make sense, and that in itself make sense. The official explanation, however, needs to make sense, and that makes even less sense than the event itself.

Anonymous said...

Somebody else brought this up. Where's all the brass? I know, from previous experience in 'Nam that stuff piles up quick.

Anonymous said...

the guy in the room below the shooter said things were falling from the room, glass or brass casings? i also want to know why i have not seen any video of the room lighting up like a Christmas tree with full auto fire. flash suppressor or not, back away from the window, possible at that angle? his room should have been lit up. maybe i have missed it. it was a dark back stop and a small strobe light was more visible than his full auto fire. as for the ammonium nitrate/tannerite, he had 50lbs of it.

Anonymous said...

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user245717/imageroot/2017/09/11/2017.10.03gunsone_0.JPG look at the muzzle device. large ports, compensation for the bump fire stock. i have seen no muzzle flashes in any of the videos. from my experience large ports equals med too large flashes. i can see a strobe on the 4th floor but zero movement (curtians) and zero flashes in his rooms area while full auto fire is heard on the audio. Aesop, if you get chance live leak has some footage of a guy doing triage on the field. many code blacks. one is frontal headshot thru and thru, look to be csf, aganal. just sad, the avg people that have zero experience with this type of stuff are going to be messed up. being an a guy with training i wish i was there to help.