Forget the crazy conspiracy theories: Stephen Paddock was lone gunman in Las Vegas mass shooting
LAS VEGAS — With less than 24-hour notice to the press, on Friday Clark County Sheriff, Joe Lombardo who runs the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) held his first press conference in three months and announced the release of a preliminary investigative report on the Oct. 1 Las Vegas massacre.
We now have a police report documenting facts uncovered by the detectives assigned to the investigation. The report also lists the evidence used to support the conclusion of the investigators. That evidence will eventually be released and/or be subpoenaed by attorneys representing victims of the massacre.
Sheriff Lombardo lost all credibility months ago. He became a one-man wrecking crew for his department and was responsible for a public relations nightmare during the investigation of the worst mass shooting in American history.
Instead of citing no comment, active criminal investigation, Lombardo thought it prudent to hand the public unverified, misleading, false and convoluted information. I dubbed him the king of contradictions, another lying politician. He was, to say the least, incompetent.
Just one week ago when speaking to a Las Vegas crowd, Lombardo referring to Stephen Paddock said, “It’s important for us to forget about this and move on.” He also came under scrutiny last week when the 58 people who were killed in the massacre were not even included in the LVMPD’s homicide rate statistics for 2017. I guess they weren’t homicide victims according to Lombardo. Just like his lies, it was another stab in the back to the families of those who were killed on October 1, 2017.
I would love to be a fly on the wall when Sheriff Joe Lombardo and others are deposed in the civil cases down the road. As sad as it is that Lombardo is the sheriff, I am glad he wasn’t one of the investigating detectives involved in the case. Like I said so many times Lombardo is not representative of most of the police officers at the LVMPD. Like many other law enforcement agencies throughout the country they have and had their share of bad cops. In fact, the LVMPD is currently the subject of an ongoing FBI probe into police corruption involving the vice unit, as reported by the local media.
The honest cops though far outweigh the bad ones. There is no such thing as a corrupt cop. Whether they are at the command level or line level, when they step over the line of honor, disgrace their uniform and profession they become criminals wearing a badge.
In addition to the release of the LVMPD preliminary report, one week ago a federal district court judge unsealed 300 pages of FBI search warrants and the affidavits listing the probable cause for the warrants. Based on the FBI affidavits and the preliminary LVMPD report I believe that Stephen Paddock was the shooter responsible for the murder of 58 people and the wounding and injuring of 851 others. It has always been with me a quest to get some answers on what happened that night.
As far as the crazy conspiracy theories that have been prolific on social media since the outset of the massacre, they are the rants of the bizarre fringe that have flourished on absurd websites over the years. One of the worst is jackass Alex Jones. If you want to quickly lose your credibility just appear on his show. And Jones has the nerve to talk about fake news. At his custody hearing for his children that he lost, by the way, his own attorneys admitted to the court that he was a fake.
As far as I am concerned, there is no conspiracy involving the investigation of Stephen Paddock. To believe that FBI special agents and detectives from the LVMPD who are the backbone of those agencies, conspired in some elaborate grand scheme to frame Paddock is just plain nonsense.
An investigator follows the direction the facts lead him. Those facts uncover the truth. An investigators credibility is based solely on that edict. Until at such time, if that time should ever come, that evidence to the contrary surfaces, I am not going to trash the hard work, the good old detective work that has been done to date on this investigation. I still have faith in law enforcement, regardless of the wrongful actions of a few.
If Paddock was alive today, the case against him as it stands right now would be sufficient to obtain an indictment against him that would most likely have led to a guilty plea and/or a conviction at trial.
There are still many questions that need to be answered.
I still have problems with the timeline when Mandalay Bay was first notified of shots fired by anyone, and the time the police were first notified.
I want answers to why the police did not immediately swarm Paddock’s suite and why the officers in the stairwell were told to wait for the full SWAT team that never arrived. That delay I contend caused the police to make entry an hour and five minutes after the last shots were fired. I will continue to scrutinize all that in future stories. I still want answers and I am not going to let anything go.
I also stand by my belief as I have said so many times that the massacre should never have happened. Incompetence led to the October 1 tragedy. MGM Resorts International, the owners of the Mandalay Bay Hotel failed to implement proper security measures that could have prevented weapons and ammunition from entering the hotel and a vehicle with explosives entering the Valet parking area.
The LVMPD should have had counter-snipers ready to go. Instead, Paddock was allowed to fire unimpeded for ten minutes. Shame on everyone if they don’t learn from this tragedy.
Thursday night on the Fox News Channel’s the Tucker Carlson Show Catherine Lombardo (no relation to Sheriff Joe Lombardo) one of the attorneys representing some of the victims of the October 1 massacre, was a guest on the show along with Congressman Scott Perry (R-PA).
Perry said, “Recently I’ve been made aware what I believe to be credible evidence, credible information regarding potential terrorist infiltration through the southern border regarding this incident.” Catherine Lombardo addressed Perry and said, “Unless you have specific evidence to back that up it seems a bit irresponsible to make that allegation so if you do have any evidence of that, I’m asking you right now to share it with us and tell us what that is.” Perry said, Well I’m not able to. I’m just telling you I have received what I feel to be and believe to be credible evidence of a possible terrorist nexus and we’re going to wait until that situation develops.”
My response to that is Perry should have put up or shut up. He had the opportunity on national television if what he said was true to be a hero. Instead, he turned into just another zero politician. Shame on him, I’m sure the families of the dead appreciated that.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack and said that Paddock was radicalized. Right away some gave credibility to a group of murdering bastards because they claimed credit for the worst mass shooting in American history and ran with it. How do we even know it was ISIS and not just another bunch of idiots that made those claims?
ISIS terrorists, Israeli Mossad, Saudi hit teams, mercenaries, helicopter gunships, rooftop extractions, the crazies came out of the woodwork again forgetting that families lost loved ones and that the survivors will be carrying their emotional and physical scars with them forever because of the October 1 massacre. These are some of the same people who said at the start that Jesus Campos was not a real security officer and an illegal immigrant and then run around calling themselves independent investigative journalists spreading absurd stories.
Let’s get back to reality.
Sheriff Joe Lombardo had no choice but to release that preliminary investigative report. The LVMPD was losing credibility for no other reason but because of Lombardo. At least now those of us with clear heads can clearly see that the detectives of the LVMPD were busting their butts tracking down leads, reviewing thousands of hours of video and conducting interviews. Those are the real cops of the LVMPD, not the brass who were appointed to their positions by the incumbent sheriff. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
I am still waiting for a response from the LVMPD at the time of this writing on an explanation on the locked and secured door to the adjoining room, 32-134. So, for now, I cannot comment on that. It doesn’t, however, detract from my belief that Stephen Paddock was responsible for the massacre and that the gunshots came from his suite.
I will say this on the locked door until I get a definitive answer from the police.
Police officers were in the stairwell immediately after the firing stopped. The fire stairwell door was still screwed shut with an “L” bracket. Mandalay Bay Security Officer Jesus Campos along with Engineer Stephen Schuck were in the hallway and remained there until the police arrived. If someone else was in that room as some have alleged, then where did they go? They couldn’t have used the stairs. They didn’t pass Campos or Shuck, both were the hallway. And if there was an accomplice who some allege killed Paddock and then fled, then why are Campos and Schuck still alive, they would have been killed. Didn’t happen that’s why.
Read the FBI affidavits for the search warrants. Read the 81-page investigative report released by the LVMPD. The evidence right now is overwhelming against Paddock and the investigation is still ongoing.
Besides being a mass murderer, the sick son-of-a-bitch also collected child pornography as it was found on one of the computers in his suite according to the police. Someone is reportedly under investigation by the FBI. Could be related to the pornography, the firearms and or the explosive materials. We must wait to see on that.
Some highlights obtained from the LVMPD report and FBI affidavits.
- Marilou Danley told the FBI she helped Paddock load magazines.
- Gun shop owners said they sold Paddock some of the firearms.
- Paddock requested a suite that overlooked the concert venue then booked the adjoining room facing McCarran International Airport.
- 28 Paddock purchases a .308 bolt action rifle in Mesquite, Nevada. The rifle and 8 expended .308 cartridges were later found in room 32-134.
- During a stay at the Mandalay Bay in the beginning of September 2017, Danley recalled Paddock behaving strangely. In room 60-235 she observed Paddock constantly looking out the windows of the room which overlooked the venue site. Paddock would move from window to window looking at the site from different angles.
- Paddock’s physician described him as “odd” in behavior with “little emotion” shown. He believed Paddock may have been bi-polar.
- From October 2016 through September 2017 Paddock purchased over 55 firearms along with firearms related accessories.
- Except for the revolver, every firearm recovered in the Mandalay Bay was bought after September 2016.
- Tracer, Frangible Incendiary, Armor Piercing, and Armor Piercing ammunition was found in both rooms.
- DNA evidence collected has not yielded any significant results or indication that anyone else was in the room.
- Approximately 1, 965 leads investigated.
- Approximately 21, 560 hours of video and 251, 099images obtained by investigators from the LVMPD and the FBI. 529 sightings of Paddock.
- Google searches on Paddocks computers for events in Las Vegas and California.
- On 9/5/2017 searches for “Mandalay Bay Las Vegas,” Route 91 harvest festival 2017 attendance,” and Route 91 harvest festival 2017.
- On 9/15/17 searches for “Swat weapons,” ballistics charts .308,” ‘SWAT Las Vegas,” “ballistic,” and “do police use explosives.”
- Several hundred images of child pornography were located on one of the hard drives of Paddock’s computer.
- Numerous internet searches for open air venues.
- Two 20-pound bags of explosive precursors were found in Paddock’s vehicle along with more weapons.
- Paddock was seen bringing numerous suitcases into the Mandalay Bay.
- Weapons and ammunition were recovered from Paddock’s Mesquite, Nevada residence.
- Weapons and ammunition were recovered from Paddock’s Reno, Nevada residence.
- No evidence exists to date to indicate Paddock conspired with or acted in collusion with anybody else. This includes video surveillance, recovered DNA and analysis of cellular phones and computers belonging to Paddock.
- Paddock was found dead in the suite of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
On Monday I spoke with Clark County Coroner, John Fudenberg. I asked him if autopsies were performed on all the homicide victims from October 1 and when will he release the autopsy report on Stephen Paddock. He replied, “You’re not the first to ask that, nothing personal, I am not commenting on anything on 1 October.”
It’s not over until it’s over.
Never forget the 58 people who died and the 851 who were wounded and or injured on the Las Vegas Strip in the worst mass shooting in American history, October 1, 2017.
It should never have happened.
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
I believe you are incorrect concluding at this point there was only one shooter. It’s possible but not 100% confirmed.
There are too many factors poiting out to possibly 2 people: 2 rooms. 2 windows. 2 pairs of gloves. One binoculars and one Meade scope. The SECOND refrigerator Paddock ordered. 2 Diazepam inhalers that mass shooters are known to use to calm the tremor in hands. Unless he wanted everyone to believe he had a double?
As for DNA analyses, it’s not 100% reliable and depends on which samples they actually collected. And, brothers, for instance, sometimes will have identical DNA.
The question of between the suits door still stays. Some ppl suggested he propped it with something. What I would like to know – if it had a knob – was it rotated/locked from inside 134 or from inside 135?
I would also like to know what is behind that big mirror in 134? Is there a corresponding recession in the wall of 135’s bathroom or an empty space between the walls? Sometimes builders intend to make closets in those places but end up leaving it as is.
If the 2nd person wouldn’t fit behind the mirror, there was also an opportunity for him to relocate to another room down the hall. In the first timeline provided, we don’t know movements of Campos before 22;17 when Campos can be seen on camera meeting the cops in front of the elevators. This event is not mentioned in the report. And even with the timeline adjusted, this event still stands, and if Campos LEFT the hallway, it’s unlikely Schuck would stay there either. All the second shooter needed is 30 sec to relocate to one of the rooms. ANd that would implicate Campos. I dont’ think cops verified everyone’s ID when they were clearing the floor. Did they???
If we are expected to believe in the veracity of the facts in the 81 page report, and we accept them, then we must assign the same weight to the fact they reported that Paddock fired appx. 1100 rounds. We have been told that 200 of those rounds were fired through the door at Campos, I wonder where those rounds ended up.
That means 900 rounds were fired out of the windows. 58 people were killed by gunfire and 481 were wounded by gunfire for a total of 539 people struck by at least one bullet. But we know from witness accounts some people were actually hit multiple times. That would put Paddocks hit ratio at close to 70% firing from 32 floors above ground level to nearly 1500 feet across and down the street. He fired 280 rounds in 31 seconds in one sequence of shots. I would like to see a Navy Seal fire 280 rounds in 31 seconds from similar distances , even reloading with with 100 round magazines, and hit his targets 70% of the time. I would like to see a member of LVMPD SWAT do it too.
Paddock was a 64 year old man that probably couldnt do 10 push-ups and 10 sit-ups in ten minutes from his physical appearance in recent photos, he drank a lot, was on medication, didnt sleep much according to news reports, and no person could seriously argue he would not meet the AMA definition of obese. Yet for a sustained 10 minutes of shooting, he ran back and forth between the locked rooms, fired out the windows, monitored his camera, fired through the door at Campos, and fired at the fuel tanks.
I know Paddock bought a lot of guns, but I dont know what explains how he became so super human and proficient in using them. I dont consider my skepticism as being in the realm of something of a conspiracy theory. I honestly find it to be a valid and reasonable doubt, that maybe even a juror would have, that one somewhat decrepit man alone could do what he reportedly did.
Lets face it, if Paddock survived, and was caught and arrested later elsewhere, a likely defense strategy would be lawyers arguing that this was an impossible act for one man to carry out and that Paddock was just a sacrificial lamb-fall guy being framed to satisfy the need to arrest someone, anyone, for the horrible crime.
You have made the case most eloquently Barney, that Paddock was not the shooter. The only and obvious conclusion is, he was double crossed and murdered when the guys who pretended to buy all that hardware showed up with a bag that contained a handgun and not the cash he expected. They shot him in the chest and then put a bullet into his head and dropped the gun with a trail of blood clearly to be seen to the handgun which likely was not his but that’s something Doug didn’t check out yet. Doug doesn’t trust the sheriff and Rouse and he knows them well. His reports do provide a lot of inside detail but he hasn’t taken on board that Lombardo and Rouse solved this crime within two to three hours after breaking down the doors. They didn’t do any investigative work and now they are telling lies rather than admitting they screwed up. You are working on the facts and evidence and they proves that Paddock could not have committed this crime. Good thinking Batman.
Agree that Paddock was the only shooter. Agree that he did the planning, procured weapons, executed the attack himself. However, there is nothing in this article that addresses following the money, or any reasonable attempt to determine motive. This is a huge gap in the investigation of this case. It’s not a conspiracy theory to believe that there is a motive and the motive is possibly connected to a money trail that ended shortly prior to the attack. It’s not a conspiracy theory to believe that Paddock knew his money source was about to dry up and planned revenge. It’s not a conspiracy theory to want more information on the suspicious activity reports that were initiated on Paddock and why those investigations were not successful in preventing the attack. Someone needs to get some guts here and go after the money trail.