Las Vegas Police final report on Paddock’s mass shooting contradicts itself
LAS VEGAS — Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo announced at the August 3 press briefing that, “We have completed a monumental task,” referring to the release of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s final criminal investigative report on the massacre.
It was such a monumental task that the final police report contained false, contradictory and misleading statements as I have reported in several stories for the Baltimore Post-Examiner, to include our October 25 story, ‘Contrary to Lombardo’s comment and Las Vegas Police report entry was not made into Paddock’s suite to stop any further gunfire,’ and our September 25 story, ‘Las Vegas police report indicates Paddock was in two places at the same time.’
Apparently, none of the authors from the Force Investigation Team who completed and signed off on the final report thought it prudent to review the contents of their report prior to it’s release to the public.
Not that it was a big deal or anything, it just happened to be the final police report of not only the largest homicide investigation in the history of the LVMPD but the worst mass shooting in modern American history.
So when Lombardo said on August 3 that, “We consider this investigation complete,” I have my doubts on that.
So what’s wrong now?
Well, the police report is in contradiction with itself.
In Part IV of the report under the heading Investigation Timeline, it states:
September 26
From 2245 hours to 2252 hours, Paddock valeted his vehicle at Mandalay Bay and took six suitcases (located on a luggage cart) and one rolling suitcase (Paddock rolled the suitcase himself) up to Room 32-135 by way of the service elevator with the help of a bellman. (The bellman who escorted Paddock on September 25 was different than the bellman who escorted Paddock on September 26).
Under the Interview Summaries section of the final report:
Gerard Killeen (Bellman)
On October 3, at approximately 1518 hours, detective DeAngelis conducted an audio-recorded interview with Gerard Killeen inside the Mandalay Bay. Below is a summary of the interview.
On September 26, at approximately 2247 hours, Killeen received a run ticket to deliver luggage. Killeen stated he took the luggage cart by himself to a room (32-135). Upon arriving at the room, Killeen knocked, and the door was answered by a male (Paddock.) Killeen propped the door open with a doorstop and brought the luggage cart into the room.
Killeen stated as he unloaded the luggage cart, paddock helped him remove items, which was not unusual. Killeen stated there was luggage on the cart as well as some non-luggage items (possibly a box). While unloading, none of the items Killeen moved were particularly heavy.
While in the room, Killeen only saw Paddock, and the brief conversation with him was not unusual.
Which one of the two accounts is true?
On September 26, did Paddock bring the luggage up to his room with the help of a bellman or did the bellman bring the luggage to Paddock’s room by himself, or is the confusion here possibly because more luggage went up to the room on September 26 than we know.
Your guess is as good as mine at this point.
Hopefully, it won’t be a monumental task to figure this out.
With 58 people dead and more than 400 injured by Paddock’s gunfire, the public deserves to know the entire truth.
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 1991 and 1992 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