One minute into Vegas massacre police detective observed Paddock with rifle firing from window
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Detective Stephen Balonek saw gunman Stephen Paddock firing from his 32nd floor Mandalay Bay suite.
Balonek states in his LVMPD Officer’s Report dated October 9, 2017, that he was working overtime on October 1, 2017, and was adjacent to the Route 91 Harvest music festival at the intersection of Giles and Mandalay Bay Road.
He states: “At approximately 2208 hours, the main act had taken stage and was performing when we heard 3-4 loud bangs which initially was thought to be part of the show. Approximately 30-45 seconds later, we heard more of the same sound and determined it to be gunfire. The sounds appeared to be muffled and not normal. The bursts lasted approximately 3 to 7 seconds in length coming from what sounded like a fully automatic rifle. The rounds were hitting the ground close to our location, which was directly in the middle of the street adjacent to the back of the stage.”
“I ran back to my vehicle and retrieved my binoculars and began scanning the hotel for the shooter. Approximately one minute into the shooting I observed a figure in a hotel room on the north side standing in a shooting platform and appeared to be 4-6 feet from the window. The figure was firing the rifle out of his hotel room. I attempted to get on the radio to update the channel and was unsuccessful. I then switched my channel landing on the Northeast and advised the dispatcher of the possible location of the shooter. I also told her that there might be more than one shooter due to the sounds of the rounds changing. We learned later that the shooter was changing his position and direction of fire within the room.”
The LVMPD final criminal investigative report contains a summary of Detective Balonek’s recorded interview that was conducted on October 18, 2017. Just to note, there is no mention in that summary of “approximately one minute into the shooting” and “I attempted to get on the radio to update the channel and was unsuccessful…” as he had stated in his Officer’s Report. I presume that he would have said that in his recorded interview also, but I find it interesting that there is no mention of it in the summary.
From the final police report:
Detective Balonek retrieved his binoculars and scanned the Mandalay Bay tower. Approximately three-quarters of the way up the tower on the far north end, Detective Balonek observed a silhouette of a man in a shooting position, standing about four to six feet back from the window. He saw smoke from the gun but did not see muzzle flashes.
My thoughts
One minute into the massacre a police officer with the use of optics, his binoculars, saw the shooter firing his rifle out of his hotel room.
Paddock continued his firing unimpeded for at least nine more minutes.
SWAT snipers have optics much more powerful than binoculars, backed up with devastating firepower.
LVMPD SWAT snipers were not deployed that night until after Paddock had stopped firing.
They were not on standby.
You may want to revisit two stories that I broke for the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
Our May 4 story, FBI’s elite hostage rescue team and the Las Vegas Police trained for similar mass-shooting scenario years before, and our September 29 story, Exclusive: MGM Resorts International executive knew that a sniper attack from a hotel high-rise posed a threat prior to October 1 massacre.
Fifty-eight dead. Over 400 wounded by gunfire. Hundreds sustained other injuries.
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
What an inexcusably pathetic lack of foresight by the LV police SWAT.
So true Matt. Command failure all the way around.
So dispatch knew where the shooter was located at 1 min. This mean that dispatch had confirmed the shooters position by two trained observers, one exterior and 2+ interior. SWAT command still staged down the road.
That’s what happened.