Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo responds to a question during a media briefing at Metro Police headquarters Monday, Oct. 9, 2017.
Published Tuesday, May 1, 2018 | 1:04 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, May 1, 2018 | 9 p.m.
Metro Police will release video recordings from the Oct. 1 mass shooting investigation, but it will be costly for the department and the footage may be upsetting for victims and their families, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said today.
Metro had sought to delay the release of video recordings, 911 tapes and documents, but the Nevada Supreme Court on Friday ruled the information be made public after media outlets filed a lawsuit.
Metro will begin releasing the material on Wednesday, starting with body-camera footage from officers who entered a Strip hotel room where gunman Stephen Paddock broke a window and fired into a crowd of people at a country music concert below.
A total of 58 people were killed and more than 800 injured before Paddock killed himself, authorities said.
At a news conference today, Lombardo warned that some of the material is disturbing.
“Further victimization is certain to occur, and it’s something we wanted to avoid,” Lombardo said. “For that we apologize.”
The rest of the material will be released on a rolling basis, said Lombardo, who read from a prepared statement and did not take any questions. He said it may be two more weeks before the next release and did not specify how long it would take to make everything public.
The process will be burdensome and cost Metro several hundred thousand dollars in equipment and manpower, Lombardo said, noting that some detectives have been reassigned from their primary responsibilities. He did not elaborate.
Hundreds of records are being redacted for privacy reasons, Lombardo said. The manner in which the records will be made available was not clear.
Police still have not established a motive for the shooting.
An 81-page preliminary report released by Metro in January shed some light on Paddock’s whereabouts and behavior in the days leading up to the shooting.
A full report is expected by the end of the year, Lombardo said, warning people not to draw conclusions from the videos and other piecemeal information being released.
“What is seen on those videos no way changes the facts that we were able to clarify for you shortly after the crime,” Lombardo said.
