Newsflash to Officer Varsin: Hendrex is no angel
LAS VEGAS — Police Officer Cordell Hendrex who told his partner, Officer Elif Varsin and three armed Mandalay Bay security managers to retreat on the night of the October 1 Las Vegas massacre, later received a gift from Varsin who called him an angel.
Hendrex took no action that night to stop Stephen Paddock’s gunfire from killing and wounding Route 91 Music Festival concert-goers, nor did he even attempt to stop, disrupt or distract Paddock; Hendrex cowered on the 31st floor as he listened to the gunfire emanating from the 32nd floor for several minutes, all the while knowing that lives were in jeopardy, including the lives of his fellow police officers.
As previously reported by the Baltimore Post-Examiner, Hendrex’s wife posted a YouTube video in October of 2017 where she called her husband a hero. That YouTube video was removed shortly after the story was published.
Further review of the now deleted YouTube video shows Hendrex’s wife holding up a snow globe that she says was given to her husband as a gift by Officer Varsin.
She says, “So she gave Cory this. It plays Amazing Grace, it has a little thing that says I said a prayer for you. This is where I get choked up. She engraved it, she had it engraved, and it says ‘Hendrex family, angels are often disguised as officers and that day you were ours, thank you.’”
Hendrex, Varsin and the three armed Mandalay Bay security managers were all armed that night. Hendrex, who is one of the LVMPD’s field training officers failed to act to save lives. He told his armed contingent to retreat.
Why he is still on active duty and as a field training officer no less is a disgrace.
What is even a bigger disgrace is the silence of his boss, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo who runs the LVMPD?
Hendrex was no angel to those who were being killed and wounded that night and he certainly is no angel to the LVMPD officers who risked their lives running into the gunfire to get into the Mandalay Bay because those officers wanted to get to the shooter. All the while ‘Angel’ Hendrex was cowering on the 31stfloor while the gunfire continued.
When a police officer doesn’t risk his life to protect the publics back, he should be stripped of his badge and career.
Fox 5 Las Vegas invited Hendrex and other officers to attend one of the Golden Knights hockey games as a thank you for what the LVMPD did that night.
Yes, thank you Hendrex, you made us all proud for what you did that night. Nothing. You are a discredit to the badge, the uniform, and your profession. You weren’t even close to being Vegas Strong that night, you were Vegas Wrong!
And another thank you to the Las Vegas media for covering this up and failing to report all the facts to the public. You are a credit to your profession.
The media exposed Parkland, Florida school shooting. They didn’t cover it up.
I’m sure the families of the 58 killed that night and the survivors appreciate getting all the facts from the local media.
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.