Lawyers: Mandalay Bay Hotel hiding information from the public and court
LAS VEGAS — Attorneys representing several victims of the October 1 Las Vegas massacre, said Mandalay Bay Hotel’s officials are “hiding information” from the public and the court that show Stephen Paddock’s actions were foreseeable, according to court records filed late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Nevada.
U.S. District Court documents obtained by the Baltimore Post-Examiner state the following:
“Plaintiffs allege no prior incident—much less ‘numerous similar … incidents.’ Nothing at Mandalay Bay or in Las Vegas resembles [the Shooter’s] extraordinary vicious assault on concertgoers a quarter-mile away. That nothing like this ever had happened anywhere– let alone at Mandalay Bay or the Las Vegas Village – precludes as a matter of law the existence of a legal duty.
Plaintiffs are not only surprised by the defendant’s strong sweeping assertion that such an event was unforeseeable but are stunned by the defendant’s assertion that nothing like the shooting had ever happened before. Plaintiff’s only recently learned that a nearly identical scenario occurred at Mandalay Bay three years before the Shooting:
Short of pulling the trigger, a nearly identical situation to the Shooting happened at Mandalay Bay on November 29, 2014. On that day, a housekeeping attendant discovered that a guest on the 24th floor had brought multiple semi-automatic assault rifles (and a silencer) in his Mandalay Bay room. One of the high-powered rifles was equipped with a scope and “positioned … so that it was pointed out of his hotel room window at the Mandalay Bay and towards the Las Vegas Strip.” The weapon’s owner appeared to be set up to shoot at a large mass of people on the Las Vegas Strip, and he was ultimately sentenced to 40 months in prison.
The above information was gleaned from federal court filings. Plaintiffs have submitted FOIA requests to several agencies involved with the incident, in hopes of obtaining additional information on their individual investigations. In response to these requests, Plaintiffs have learned of twenty-eight (28) other “Suspicious Situations” that share a similar categorization as this incident, which Plaintiffs must investigate. Nonetheless, plaintiffs remain mortified that defendants are seemingly intent on hiding this information from the victims, the public, and this, or any, Court.
In light of the fact that defendants have not been forthcoming about this prior event on the 24th floor of the Mandalay Bay, and the possibility that there may be other such events at the Mandalay Bay or other MGM properties, Plaintiffs should be provided time to explore their course of action. Clearly, Defendants are attempting to keep similar incidents under the radar and away from the public, necessitating the need for an investigation and possibly a judicial discovery process.”
Kye Aaron Dunbar
Records obtained by the Baltimore Post-Examiner also indicate that at about 11:50 a.m. on November 29, 2014, a housekeeping attendant at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino reported to Security that there were firearms in room 24-213. Security officers obtained consent to look into the room and saw a large-caliber rifle and two assault rifle-type weapons and a semi-automatic handgun. Security officers determined that one of the occupants of the room was Kye Dunbar. Security called the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, who determined that Dunbar had three prior felony convictions in California.
Based on that information, the officers obtained search warrants and recovered a Spikes Tactical model SL15 .223 caliber semi-auto rifle; a Smith and Wesson model 36 .38 caliber revolver; a JD Machine model TR-1 .223 caliber semi-automatic rifle; a Springfield Armory Ultra Compact .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol; a Sig Sauer Mosquito .22lr semi-automatic pistol; and a Mossberg MVP 7.62 NATO caliber bolt-action rifle.
Another court document states that Dunbar came to Las Vegas on or about November 29, 2014, for a vacation with his wife and sister-in-law. Part of the vacation included attending a gun range to fire weapons as a sport. The firearms were located in a room registered to Lyndsay Dunbar. A maid entered the room and noticed a rifle with scope lying on the floor pointing towards the Strip. Law enforcement was contacted. Ultimately, the investigation included the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the ATF. During the investigation, Dunbar was questioned regarding being involved in a terrorist plot. Dunbar waived his rights and admitted handling the firearms for the purpose of target shooting at a gun range.
According to federal court records, on December 16, 2014, a Federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging Kye Aaron Dunbar with one count of Felon in Possession of a Firearm. On September 9, 2015, Dunbar pleaded guilty to the Indictment without the benefit of a plea agreement.
According to a United States Probation Office Pre-Sentence Investigation Report (PSR) that was prepared in advance of Dunbar’s sentencing hearing, Dunbar had apparently positioned a scoped rifle so that it was pointed out of his hotel room window at the Mandalay Bay and towards the Las Vegas Strip. One of the items recovered in the room was a homemade suppressor (commonly referred to as a “silencer”). The PSR noted that Dunbar built one of the firearms himself, despite obviously being on notice that he could not possess firearms since he was a convicted felon. Dunbar, according to the PSR transported all the weapons across state lines, all the while knowing he wasn’t allowed to possess them in the first place.
Dunbar’s prior criminal history included convictions for seven misdemeanor offenses and three felony offenses, including a prior felony conviction in 2011 for being a felon in possession of a firearm and a prior felony conviction in 2012 for possession of a dangerous weapon.
In January 2016 Kye Aaron Dunbar was sentenced to 40 months in prison; Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate # 49623-048, is currently incarcerated in the La Tuna Federal Correction Institution at Anthony, Texas. Dunbar’s scheduled release date is February 20, 2021.
Texas attorney Craig Eiland, one of several attorneys involved in the current case against the Mandalay Bay told the Baltimore Post-Examiner on Friday that had the Dunbar incident been made public before Paddock’s attack on the Route 91 Music Festival, that Paddock would have been called a copycat.
Paddock brought 23 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and other equipment into his suite on the 32ndfloor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel undetected.
Paddock also drove his vehicle containing over 50 pounds of explosive materials onto Mandalay Bay property, again undetected.
I have said consistently in numerous articles that I have written for the Baltimore Post-Examiner that Las Vegas hotels/casinos were put on notice for years by government agencies to implement security measures that could have prevented Paddock’s ability to bring an arsenal of weapons and explosives onto Mandalay Bay property.
As a result of inaction on many levels, the worst mass shooting in modern American history occurred on October 1st, 2017 that left 58 people dead, over 400 wounded by gunfire and thousands of others injured, both physically and emotionally.
Doug authored over 135 articles on the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas Massacre, more than any other single journalist in the country. He investigates stories on corruption, law enforcement and crime. Doug is a US Army Military Police Veteran, former police officer, deputy sheriff and criminal investigator. Doug spent 20 years in the hotel/casino industry as an investigator and then as Director of Security and Surveillance. He also spent a short time with the US Dept. of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration. In 1986 Doug was awarded Criminal Investigator of the Year by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia for his undercover work in narcotics enforcement. In 1992 and 1993 Doug testified in court that a sheriff’s office official and the county prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence during the 1988 trial of a man accused of the attempted murder of his wife. Doug’s testimony led to a judge’s decision to order the release of the man from prison in 1992 and awarded him a new trial, in which he was later acquitted. As a result of Doug breaking the police “blue wall of silence,” he was fired by the county sheriff. His story was featured on Inside Edition, Current Affair and CBS News’ “Street Stories with Ed Bradley”. In 1992 after losing his job, at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Doug infiltrated a group of men who were plotting the kidnapping of a Dupont fortune heir and his wife. Doug has been a guest on national television and radio programs speaking on the stories he now writes as an investigative journalist. Catch Doug’s Podcast: @dougpoppa1
In light of the fact that defendants have not been forthcoming about this prior event on the 24th floor of the Mandalay Bay, and the possibility that there may be other such events at the Mandalay Bay or other MGM properties, Plaintiffs should be provided time to explore their course of action?
There is no such thing as a Simi automatic Assult weapon?
There is no such thing as a Simi automatic Assult weapon.