Pressure Mounts For Las Vegas Police To Explain Response Time
LAS VEGAS (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A revised chronology given by investigators for the Las Vegas massacre is intensifying pressure for police to explain how quickly they responded to what would become the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Two hotel employees had called for help and reported that gunman Stephen Paddock sprayed a hallway with bullets, striking an unarmed security guard in the leg, several minutes before Paddock opened fire on a crowd at a musical performance, killing 58 people and injuring nearly 500 others.
Maintenance worker Stephen Schuck said he was checking out a report of a jammed fire door on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay when he heard gunshots and a hotel security guard who had been shot in the leg, Jesus Campos, peeked out from an alcove and told him to take cover.
"It was kind of relentless so I called over the radio what was going on," Schuck said. "As soon as the shooting stopped we made our way down the hallway and took cover again and then the shooting started again."
Gunshots can be heard in the background as Schuck used his radio to report the shooting, telling a dispatcher: "Call the police, someone's firing a gun up here. Someone's firing a rifle on the 32nd floor down the hallway."
On Monday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo revised the chronology of the shooting and said Paddock had shot the security guard through the door of his suite and strafed a hallway of the Mandalay Bay hotel and casino with 200 rounds six minutes before he unleashed a barrage of bullets into the crowd.
That account differed dramatically from the one police gave last week when they said Paddock ended his hail of fire on the crowd in order to shoot through his door and wound Campos.
Campos also used his radio and possibly a hallway phone to call hotel dispatchers for help, police have said. It was unclear if and when the hotel relayed the reports of shots being fired to police.
Las Vegas authorities did not respond to questions about whether hotel security or anyone else in the hotel called 911 to report the gunfire.
"Our officers got there as fast as they possibly could and they did what they were trained to do," Las Vegas assistant sheriff Todd Fasulo said previously.
The parent company of the hotel has raised concerns that the revised timeline presented by police may be inaccurate.
"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."
Undersheriff Kevin McMahill earlier defended the hotel and said the encounter between Paddock and the security guard and maintenance man disrupted the gunman's plans, but he would not comment on the revised timeline.
"MGM and the people associated with the MGM and people involved that night at the event did a fantastic job," McMahill said.
The news comes as a California woman wounded in the shooting filed a lawsuit against the operators of the hotel, festival organizers, the gunman's estate and the manufacturer of the "bump stocks" used by Paddock to help mimic a fully automatic firearm.
Meanwhile, law enforcement told CBS News they're getting "a very good response" to billboards asking for the public's help with information about Paddock and the shooting.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
