Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo today again adjusted the timeline of events surrounding the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, now saying a Mandalay Bay security guard was shot close to the same time the gunman opened fire on a festival crowd, not six minutes earlier.
The new timeline coincides with a statement issued Thursday by MGM Resorts International that said no more than 40 seconds elapsed between the time the guard was wounded and the gunman started shooting from a 32nd-floor hotel room into a crowd of 22,000 people at the Route 91 Harvest festival.
Lombardo also offered updated casualty numbers.
While the number of dead remains at 58, the number of people injured now stands at 546, up from a previously reported 489, Lombardo said. A total of 45 people were still hospitalized, some in critical condition, he said.
"By the grace of God," Lombardo said, he hoped the number of deaths didn’t increase.
Lombardo laid out the latest timeline during a media briefing this morning at which he did not take any questions.
At a previous briefing, Metro Police reported that the security guard, Jesus Campos, was wounded at 9:59 p.m. on Oct. 1 — some six minutes before the festival shooting started — when Stephen Paddock fired a barrage of bullets through a hotel room door into the hallway.
Today, Lombardo said it was actually 9:59 p.m. when Campos encountered a barricaded door on the 32nd floor of the hotel tower. “Mr. Campos received his wounds closer to 10:05,” he said.
Police officers arrived outside Paddock’s room 12 minutes after Campos was shot, Lombardo said, though the gunfire onto the festival crowd below lasted only 10 minutes. It remains unclear why Paddock, who was later found dead in the room, stopped shooting.
Lombardo cautioned that information could still change and reiterated that it was released to “calm the public” and not serve as an official account to build a legal case. He investigators are sifting through a voluminous amount of information, including hotel and police dispatch logs, hotel surveillance camera footage, police body-worn camera video and interviews.
The timeline of events has shifted several times since it was initially released.
An original Metro account had Campos approaching Paddock’s room after the gunman opened fire on the crowd, interrupting him and preventing further shots. Lombardo last week credited Campos and a rapid police response for saving hundreds of lives.
At today’s briefing, Lombardo touched on several other aspects of the shooting.
He noted that while Paddock fired shots at some large fuel tanks at McCarran International Airport, airport security reported there was no legitimate threat of the tanks exploding.
Lombardo said that it is “readily apparent” that Paddock had “adjusted his fire” and directed it at officers arriving in police vehicles once the gunfire began, saying that maybe he was trying to prevent “the wolf” from getting to his door, sooner than later.
Lombardo also confirmed that Paddock started his stay at Mandalay Bay on Sept. 25, though the name on his reservation changed to include that of his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, on Sept. 28. Danley was in the Philippines at the time of the shooting.
A visual examination of Paddock’s brain during an autopsy showed no obvious signs of abnormalities, but it has been sent to a lab for further analysis, Lombardo said.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Aaron Rouse said more than 200 agency personnel, many in specialized positions, are on the case. The investigation has expanded globally, with agents “covering every facet of the investigation,” he said.
Rouse said investigators have made “significant progress" in the case. But authorities still haven't figured out a motive for the attack.
“To date, we’ve found no signs of ideology or affiliation to any groups,” Rouse said.
Lombardo also highlighted the heroics of three officers during the attack, fighting back tears as he told their stories.
He slapped the podium before ending the briefing with two words: “Vegas strong.”