Over a week after a horrific mass shooting left 58 people dead in Las Vegas, the owners of the Mandalay Bay hotel have publicly questioned the validity of the working timeline shared by law enforcement authorities.
It was originally claimed that Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos found shooter Stephen Paddock’s room at the hotel and attempted to intervene, which caused Paddock to cease firing down at the Harvest Route 91 music festival.
Campos was shot in the attempt, and was taken to hospital. He was hailed as a hero for his bravery in attempting to halt Paddock’s gunfire.
However, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police later amended that claim, saying “Campos was encountered by the suspect prior to his shooting to the outside world.”
Rebecca DeShong, spokesperson for Mandalay Bay’s owner MGM Resorts, cited “a lot of moving parts” in the investigation. That complexity lead the organisation to state their belief the official timeline may be inaccurate.
As evidenced by law enforcement briefings over the past week, many facts are still unverified and continue to change as events are under review. We cannot be certain about the most recent timeline that has been communicated publically, [sic] and we believe what is currently being expressed may not be accurate.
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We understand the public’s desire for information and the importance of getting our community and the public at large the information they deserve, and we are doing everything we can to support law enforcement’s efforts to do so. Therefor, [sic] it is not appropriate for us to comment further at this time on what remains an open matter for law enforcement.
There are a couple of things to note here: no law enforcement authority has yet laid out an exhaustive and definitive version of events, and it’s not clear which element of the current working timeline MGM Resorts believes may be inaccurate.
While authorities work to determine the exact series of events, investigations continue into potential motives Paddock may have had for the shooting. To date, no clear ideology or driving factor has been established.
