{"id":86581,"date":"2017-10-15T18:45:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-15T22:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=86581"},"modified":"2017-10-15T18:51:34","modified_gmt":"2017-10-15T22:51:34","slug":"police-change-vegas-shooting-story-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=86581","title":{"rendered":"Police Change Vegas Shooting Story Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Written by\u00a0Carey Wedler<\/a><\/p>\n

(<\/b>ANTIMEDIA<\/b><\/a>)<\/b>\u00a0Las Vegas, NV\u00a0<\/em>\u2014 Earlier this week, police investigating the Las Vegas shooting made\u00a0headlines<\/a>\u00a0when they changed the official timeline of events in the deadly massacre on October 1.<\/p>\n

They had initially reported that gunman Stephen Paddock shot Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos\u00a0after<\/i>\u00a0he fired into the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Campos was credited with stopping the attack. This week, the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/i>\u00a0further\u00a0summarized<\/a>\u00a0the original timeline:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a timeline released last week, investigators said Paddock had stopped firing at the concert across the street at 10:15 p.m., and the first police officers arrived on the floor at 10:17 p.m. and encountered the wounded Campos at 10:18 p.m., who directed the officers to Paddock\u2019s suite.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

This summary came from a report released Monday of this week\u00a0when the official story first changed. This week, Clark County Sheriff \u00a0Joe Lombardo announced Paddock had fired on Campos at 9:59 pm, a full six minutes before the attack began \u2014 not after he stopped shooting into the crowd. This created new questions as to why Paddock stopped firing on concertgoers considering it apparently was not a result of Campos diverting his attention.<\/p>\n

Now, just days later, police have again changed their timeline, clarifying that Paddock did not actually shoot Campos six minutes before the rampage began. The\u00a0Chicago Tribune\u00a0<\/i>reports<\/a>\u00a0that amid claims from the MGM Hotel Group that contradict the second timeline offered Monday, authorities altered their sequence of events.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0Tribune<\/i>\u00a0noted that \u201cnew questions surrounding the shooting have centered on the law enforcement response and the timeline, which had been changed multiple times and challenged by MGM Resorts International, the Mandalay Bay\u2019s owner.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

The outlet explained further:<\/p>\n

\u201cLombardo had said on Monday that Campos, the guard, was shot at 9:59 p.m. and that the mass shooting began at 10:05 p.m., lasting for 10 minutes. This six-minute gap relayed by Lombardo left uncertain whether there was any lag in alerting police to the source of the gunfire during critical moments. Police said they arrived on the 32nd floor at 10:17 p.m., after Paddock had stopped firing.<\/i><\/p>\n

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\u201cMGM, though, said it was \u2018confident\u2019 that the 9:59 p.m. time was inaccurate and \u2018was derived from a Mandalay Bay report manually created after the fact without the benefit of information we now have.\u2019 The company also disputed the suggestion of a lag and said the mass shooting began within a minute of Campos being shot on the 32nd floor.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

According<\/a>\u00a0to a statement from MGM:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that shots were being fired at the festival lot at the same time as, or within 40 seconds after, the time Jesus Campos first reported that shots were fired over the radio<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Tribune<\/i>\u00a0summarized Lombardo\u2019s most recent explanation:<\/p>\n

\u201cUpon investigation, [Lombardo] said, police learned that Campos first encountered a barricaded door on the 32nd floor at 9:59 p.m., and that he was fired upon by Paddock \u2018in close proximity to\u2019 10:05 p.m., when police say the mass shooting began.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019He attempted to relay that information via his radio and it was confirmed because he also relayed that information via his cell phone,\u2019 Lombardo said. \u2018So the timeline associated to both of those sources have been verified.\u2019<\/i>\u201c<\/p>\n

The sheriff did not specify when police were informed of the security guard\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the week, Lombardo expressed frustration at questions over the changing timeline. \u201cNobody\u2019s trying to be nefarious, nobody\u2019s trying to hide anything, and what we want to do is draw the most accurate picture we can,<\/i>\u201d he said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Daniel Oates, who served as police chief of Aurora, Colorado, when James Holmes opened fire on a movie theater in 2012, defended police\u2019s changing story. \u201cI see this as being ridiculously hard on the people who are trying to get information out, get the totality of that story<\/i>,\u201d he said. \u201cThis stuff takes time.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>The\u00a0Tribune<\/em>\u00a0reported that experts \u201ccautioned that it can take time for even basic information about what occurred during events like the one in Las Vegas to come together<\/em>\u201d (though, in that article, the outlet did not identify specific experts beyond Oates).<\/p>\n

Either way, the jumbled timeline continues to draw questions and skepticism, exacerbated further by reports at the end of this week that Campos \u2018disappeared\u2019 shortly before he was scheduled to appear at a press conference on Thursday. The report is circulating mostly in right-wing corners of the news media; it was\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Fox News<\/i>\u00a0and has been\u00a0re-reported<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0several<\/a>\u00a0other right-leaning outlets. The\u00a0general story appears to have been confirmed by\u00a0ABC<\/i>\u00a0journalist Stephanie Wash, who tweeted Thursday evening: \u201cMedia scrum tonight as we learn security officer shot in Vegas attack, Jesus Campos\u2019 whereabouts are unknown.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

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Media scrum tonight as we learn security officer shot in Vegas attack, Jesus Campos\u2019 whereabouts are unknown. pic.twitter.com\/Jk09tRlPsX<\/a><\/p>\n

— Stephanie Wash (@WashNews) October 13, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n