Second Las Vegas Metro Police SWAT commander since October 1 Massacre with no SWAT experience

LAS VEGAS — Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo has struck again with a brainstorm, or not.

Baltimore Post-Examiner’s article, ‘Lombardo’s After-Action Review confirms incompetence, negligence led to October 1 Las Vegas Massacre,’ criticized Lombardo for failing to learn from events prior to the Massacre.

Once again, learning nothing from the night of the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas Massacre that left 58 people dead and almost 500 others injured by gunfire, Lombardo’s new SWAT commander, Lt. Melanie O’Daniel, has no prior SWAT experience.

At a July 24 luncheon, Lombardo told the media that O’Daniel is the first female in the history of the LVMPD to head the SWAT Team and described it as a “big deal”.

One could make the case that it is a big deal as Lombardo said, because once again since the worst mass shooting in modern American history, the LVMPD’s SWAT Team is commanded by a lieutenant who has no tactical SWAT experience.

O’Daniel follows in the footsteps of Lt. William Huddler who commanded the LVMPD’s SWAT Team on October 1, 2017 until May of this year when O’Daniel took over.

Huddler also had no prior SWAT experience and was criticized by police officers who spoke to the Baltimore Post-Examiner last year, after Huddler ordered SWAT to respond to the South Central Area Command and not directly to the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the night of the Massacre.

The full SWAT Team never made entry into Stephen Paddock’s Mandalay Bay Hotel suite on the night of the Massacre as Lombardo told the public it had and entry wasn’t made into the suite until one hour and five minutes after Paddock stopped firing and then only with an ad-hoc team of patrol officers led by SWAT Officer Levi Hancock.

Lt. William Huddler who was commanding the SWAT Team on the night of the Massacre had just taken charge of the team in September 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile, and he too had no prior SWAT experience.

Lt. James Melton, who would have been commanding the SWAT Team on the night of the Las Vegas Massacre had been on paid administrative leave since July of 2017, as the department was investigating allegations of elder abuse and fraud against Melton and several other persons.

Melton before taking command of the SWAT Team was a former SWAT Team member himself and therefore had prior SWAT experience.

Melton was indicted on multiple felony counts in February of 2018 and was relieved of duty.   According to court records his trial is scheduled for September 2019.

Retired LVMPD Capt. Larry Burns who passed away earlier this month, was the longest assigned SWAT commander in the history of the LVMPD, holding that title from 2002 through 2009.

Burns also had prior SWAT experience before being promoted to lieutenant and commanding the Team. From December 1990 through August 1996 Burns was a tactical operator and assistant SWAT Team leader, who had participated in more than 1000 tactical operations.

One Metro officer who spoke to the Baltimore Post-Examiner said that it was another Lombardo political correctness move that has finally made it to the SWAT Team, with no regard to the impact on the Team by having another inexperienced commander.

The ideal commander should be someone who has moved up within the ranks of a SWAT Team and who has extensive knowledge, skills, experience, and exceptional leadership skills because they are the tactical commander in charge of an entire life and death event.

I wish Lt. O’Daniel well in her new assignment, however, I believe commanding tactical operations should be the only assignment in a police department where you should not learn by on-the-job training.

As we learned on the night of the Las Vegas Massacre, having an inexperienced SWAT Team commander can lead to a bad command decision and that could very well have an impact on the safety of the public, if not the Team itself.