Mandalay Bay Security Officer Jesus Campos getting a bad rap
Mandalay Bay Security Officer Jesus Campos received his “SPFPA Hero Award” for bravery in the line of duty on Oct. 10, after having been wounded in the leg by the gunman on Oct. 1.
The SPFPA is the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, the union that represents security officers at the Mandalay Bay.
Last year on Dec. 9 Mandalay Bay security officers voted 2 to 1 to join the union. This was the first time in Las Vegas history that security officers in Las Vegas unionized. The SPFPA also represents security officers at one property in Laughlin, Nevada and seventeen other casinos around the country.
Since the massacre that occurred in Las Vegas on October 1, S/O Jesus Campos has been receiving plenty of criticism not only in the main stream media but across social media.
Racist, derogatory and demeaning remarks impugning the man’s character is not only wrong but a disgrace.
The man got shot, almost killed doing his job. Until all the facts are in, lay off.
Does anybody realize that Campos may have been traumatized from having almost two-hundred rounds fired at him and getting shot, and depending on what timeline ends up being true, heard the gunfire as it was raining down on hundreds of people?
Let me undo some myths floating around cyberspace.
There are no guards working on any hotel property in Las Vegas, however we do have security officers. Security officers have been killed and wounded over the years in Las Vegas in the line of duty.
Another myth dispelled. Security personnel do not have to be licensed through the Nevada Private Investigator Licensing Board if they are being employed directly by the hotel casino. If a hotel contracts their security out to another company, then yes in that case they would have to be licensed through the PILB. So, his name would not be on any list at the PILB.
Campos is an “illegal immigrant working illegally”. I shouldn’t even have to justify that comment, but here’s why that’s not true. MGM Resorts International as other properties do, conduct thorough background checks on all applicants. I know, I was an investigator for the MGM and a director of security and investigations at two properties thereafter. So that’s another ignorant remark floating around the ether.
Campos has been criticized because he backed out of several interviews on Oct. 12 with CNN, NBC, CBS and Fox’s Sean Hannity show.
He reportedly is nowhere to be found. So, what. What law says he needs to be available to be hounded by the media?
Did anybody ever think that maybe he was told by MGM not to speak after they realized it was a risk management blunder to allow Stephen Schuck, the maintenance engineer to be interviewed on NBC’s “Today” this past Tuesday.
Employees are not allowed per company policy to talk about any company business with the media unless they are authorized to do so.
A relative of Stephen Schuck told the media that his interview was arranged by MGM Resorts International through a public relations agency. MGM Resorts International declined to let Schuck speak out to local media.
Why any corporation would allow any employee to speak to the media, specifically with the magnitude of this case and possible civil actions is beyond me. Attorneys will rip apart every single word you said during any interview when you are being deposed.
If Campos was my employee, I would have him recuperating somewhere out of public view, all expenses paid.
It’s ludicrous to think that the LVMPD and the FBI do not know his whereabouts. He is a material witness in the worst mass shooting in American history.
I’m more concerned with why he was unarmed, as reported. I can’t imagine what would have happened had the gunman opened the door and chased him down the hall and Campos was unable to protect himself or other guests that could have been in the area. Most likely they would all be dead.
David Hickey, the International President for the SPFPA told the Baltimore Post-Examiner on Tuesday that he spent four days with Campos last week both professionally and personally.
Hickey said, “I went to dinner with Mr. Campos, he is a good man.” I asked Hickey where was Campos shot and he replied, “he was actually hit in the left calf.”
If Las Vegas hotel casinos are going to continue to allow anyone to bring in an arsenal onto their property they should start training and arming all security officers on their property, no exceptions.
It reminds me of the television commercial where the bank is getting robbed and the people ask the security guy why isn’t he doing anything and he replies that he is only a security monitor.
Casino owners, it’s a brave new world out there, wake up and smell the freaking roses.
As I was writing this story it was reported on Tuesday evening that both Campos and Schuck will appear on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday.
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 watched Wayne Alyn Root on NewsMax last night, and he was all over this topic. He said he has had security officers and even supervisors calling from Mandalay and MGM, and they said there are a lot of problems with security that MGM does not want publicized, for fear of the eventual mega lawsuits. For example, the security officer radios are crummy, and the building is full of dead spots. Also, they confirm that there are no cameras in the hallways or stairwells, only at the elevators. (So another shooter might have escaped unseen, and there will be no way to ever know.) Back to the crummy radios, and this might dovetail with the shifting timeline, Root said that according to his sources, Campos was shot six minutes before the massacre, but was unable to call it in due to the crummy radio and/or being in a hotel dead spot. Being wounded and possibly pinned down by fire, he couldn’t move to a place with better radio qualities. Eventually he used his private cell phone to contact security, but this took time. The “conspiracy” involved in the case might be to keep quiet how incompetent MGM management was. For example, the Mandalay security had no quick response team or protocols for a critical incident like the massacre, just call 911 and hope that SWAT comes.
Very good points Matt. I can say right now you are right on the money with no security quick response teams. It’s going to be interesting to see what he says on the Ellen show. Both of them have been debriefed by MGM attorneys and told what to say, no question.