Lombardo: Release the body worn camera video footage

LAS VEGAS — The Baltimore Post-Examiner is hereby requesting Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo to immediately release the body-worn camera video footage of Officer Elif Varsin in its entirety, unedited with the time/date stamp for October 1, 2017.

We believe without any equivocation whatsoever that body footage will indicate exactly what time Officer Cordell Hendrex and Varsin along with armed security personnel from the Mandalay Bay left the security office after being notified of an active shooter at the Route 91 Music Festival.

We believe that Varsin’s BWC footage will also show them entering the guest elevator at the casino level and who exited at the 31^stfloor and or 32^ndfloor while Stephen Paddock’s gunfire was reigning down on the concert venue.

The BWC footage should also indicate the time Mandalay Bay armed security personnel, Varsin and Hendrex arrived on the 31^st floor as reported by both Varsin and Hendrex in their Officer’s Reports.

Hendrex stated in his report that he did not turn on his body camera until much later when he was inside the stairwell. We also request that his footage containing the time/date stamp also be immediately released.

We also request that MGM Resorts International, the owners of the Mandalay Bay Hotel immediately release the surveillance video footage with the time/date stamp of the guest elevator that Varsin and Hendrex along with Mandalay Bay armed security personnel entered on the night of October 1.

The Baltimore Post-Examiner knows that the requested elevator time/date stamped surveillance video footage exists and will show who exited on the 31^stand 32^ndfloors while the gunfire was in progress.

MGMRI previously released guest elevator surveillance video footage of Paddock entering and exiting the guest elevators on the 32^nd floor.

As first reported by the Baltimore Post-Examiner, Mandalay Bay Security Manager Sottile told the FBI and the LVMPD in a recorded interview that Hendrex had exited on the 32^nd floor with him while the gunfire was ongoing and that Hendrex and he remained on the 32^ndfloor after the gunfire stopped and covered Paddock’s room to make sure no one exited from the rooms.

Obviously, Hendrex could not have been on the 32^nd floor with Sottile and on the 31^st floor with Varsin and other armed Mandalay Bay security personnel.  If Sottile gave false information to the FBI and to the police, he should face criminal charges.  If Hendrex and Varsin were not truthful in their statements, then they should be terminated immediately and face criminal charges.

The LVMPD and MGMRI have been covering this up for the past eight months and it’s time for the cover-up to be exposed.

As previously reported in several stories by the Baltimore Post-Examiner, Varsin and Hendrex stated they were on the 31^st floor of the Mandalay Bay while gunfire was originating from the 32^ndfloor.

Hendrex stated he told everybody to retreat, that he was terrified, he hesitated, that he froze for how long he could not say and that he hesitated again while the gunfire was still ongoing, and he did not know what to do next.

Hendrex heard the gunshots, he knew what was occurring across the street and failed to act to protect those lives.

Varsin’s body-worn camera footage in conjunction with the guest elevator surveillance video footage should not only result in who is who is telling the truth but will also put to rest the timeline of when armed personnel responded to the 32^nd floor.

The last timeline that was given by the police is that Paddock started firing at 10:05 p.m. and the last shots were fired at 10:15 p.m.

Doug Poppa

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