Lombardo sworn in for second term as Las Vegas Metro Police halt court-ordered releases of October 1 massacre records
LAS VEGAS — Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo who runs the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was sworn in for a second term on Friday.
On Thursday the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department issued a press release stating that they don’t expect any further major releases of either video or documents related to October 1.
The LVMPD said they are now doing due diligence to ensure that all documents have been released.
If documents are identified that have not been previously released, they will be made available, and at this time there are no more scheduled weekly releases, the LVMPD said in the press release.
They asked if you dropped off a flash drive or hard drive for a release, that they are available for pickup at LVMPD headquarters.
By several accounts, there are still hundreds of hours of police body-worn camera footage and 911 Communication Center telephone calls as well as written witness statements/officer reports that still have not been released to date, as well as hundreds of hours of hotel surveillance video footage of Paddock that the LVMPD reviewed.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation still has not released the results of their investigation into the Las Vegas Massacre, contrary to statements made last year by Special Agent in charge of the FBI Las Vegas Division, Aaron Rouse, that the FBI reports would be released before the end of 2018.
When the LVMPD released its final criminal investigative report on the Massacre in August, the police made reference numerous times that some of the information in their final report came from the FBI reports.
So why hasn’t the FBI released their reports?
California attorney Catherine Lombardo (no relation to Sheriff Joe Lombardo) one of several attorneys representing victims of the Massacre told the Baltimore Post-Examiner on Friday: “We believe that there is still significant video footage that the LVMPD has in their possession. We look forward to receiving it so that the victims can continue to receive answers.”
After Lombardo was sworn in, he told a local reporter that he was proud of the way LVMPD officers responded on the night of October 1, 2017.
What the reporter should have asked him, was if he was proud of LVMPD Field Training Officer Cordell Hendrex, who along with LVMPD Officer Eliff Varsin and three armed Mandalay Bay Hotel security supervisors, retreated on the 31st floor as Route 91 Music festival attendees were being slaughtered and failed to take any action to confront gunman Stephen Paddock.
We still have heard nothing from Lombardo on why it took the LVMPD over one hour to breach Paddock’s room and why the LVMPD full SWAT Team wasn’t there to make entry.
The Baltimore Post-Examiner will continue throughout 2019 to report on stories that the Las Vegas media appear reluctant to cover.
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.