The Welcome to Las Vegas sign is surrounded by flowers and items, left after the Oct. 1 mass shooting, Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.
Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 | 9 p.m.
Investigators on Tuesday continued to solidify a precise timeline of what occurred in the minutes leading up to a gunman spraying bullets on a country music concert on the Strip, killing 58, and injuring hundreds on Oct. 1, Clark County Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo said.
The processing of the Route 91 Harvest Festival grounds was “just about complete” Tuesday afternoon — the "very pertinent" evidence had been collected — and investigators continued to process the 32nd room floor from where Stephen Paddock, 64, shot at concert attendees and the hallway where he fired at a Mandalay Bay security guard, Fasulo said.
Hundreds of local and federal personnel are investigating, Fasulo said, describing briefings in which more than 100 people have gathered every morning since the mass killing.
Explaining the discrepancy between the initial timeline given by officials of when Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos was shot, Fasulo said investigators have probed different sources of time to include dispatch calls, officer body-worn cameras, hotel surveillance video, and interviews, all of which may have not been in sync.
"As you keep going, you get a different timeline sometimes, and unless you can show that every clock (and witness accounts) was on the same exact time," even a few seconds can make a difference, Fasulo said. "So that’s why you maybe see a change, but we’re giving you what we know at that moment in time.”
MGM Resorts, which owns the Mandalay Bay, on Tuesday joined law enforcement officials in pleading for patience.
“This remains an ongoing investigation with a lot of moving parts. As evidenced by law enforcement briefings over the past week, many facts are still unverified and continue to change as events are under review. We cannot be certain about the most recent timeline that has been communicated publicly, and we believe what is currently being expressed may not be accurate,” said Debra DeShong, MGM Resorts spokesperson in a statement.
"We understand the public’s desire for information and the importance of getting our community and the public at large the information they deserve, and we are doing everything we can to support law enforcement’s efforts to do so. Therefore, it is not appropriate for us to comment further at this time on what remains an open matter for law enforcement," DeShong wrote.
Asked if investigators are closer to determining why Paddock may have stopped shooting, Fasulo said, "Short answer is no. Long answer is that everybody has a theory, but I don't know if we'll ever know."
Absent a major development, the next update from Metro Police will be provided on Friday, officials said.
"Authorities are in the stage where they are focusing on the actual crime," Fasulo said. "Even though we won’t have a prosecution of the person who did the shooting, we still have to try to come to a conclusion as to why he did what he did, and who else knew about it."
This week, Fasulo said, investigators were in the process of identifying every officer — on-duty or off-duty — who acted in a police capacity during or after the shooting.
Fasulo on Tuesday also gave an account of what he witnessed at the festival grounds immediately following the shooting. "It was one of the more disturbing things that I've seen in my career, and I've seen a lot over 27 years," he said. "But it was somewhat surreal, hard to comprehend and doesn't really hit you until you walk out and you think about what you just saw."
He was also in the two-room suite days later. "It gives you a perspective of maybe what (Paddock) was seeing or what he was looking at, because you could see the field of view."
Counseling has been available to police personnel who may need it, Fasulo said.
"From day one, we've been taking care of our troops the best way we can," Fasulo said. "Whoever needs it gets it — there’s not a whole lot of questions being asked whether or not you need it or not. Everybody is affected in a different way, depending on your tenure, your experience, your own emotional side of things, you know, cops are human, too. All these things affect cops the same what that it probably affects you.”
