‘So That’s Our Shooter’: Las Vegas Officers Found Gunman Dead in Hotel

LOS ANGELES — A handful of Las Vegas police officers cautiously approached the door of Room 135 on the 32nd floor and huddled outside before whispering: “Breach, breach, breach.”

Then came an explosion that ripped open the door of a suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel, where officers expected to confront a gunman who by then had killed 58 people and injured hundreds more at a concert across the road.

They stood at the doorway for more than a minute, peering into what appeared to be an empty room.

“The door, Levi, get the door,” one officer said to another, seemingly trying to alert him to where the gunman — later identified as Stephen Paddock — could be lurking. The officers prepared to enter.

“Hold on, hold on, hold on. Relax.”

“Rifles up, move up.”

“Check under the bed.”

Several minutes later, an officer announced flatly: “Head shot.” The gunman was already dead.

“Did we shoot him?” another asked.

“No,” came the answer. “We found him like this.”

There was no celebrating or even a palpable sense of relief. Instead, the officers went about the business of securing the room.

“So that’s our shooter,” one said. “Be careful where you are stepping,” said another.

And then: “This is done, if you need to go elsewhere to help out, do it.”

“This room is contained, we don’t need anyone else in here.”

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released more than two hours of body camera video Wednesday showing how officers responded to the gunman’s room during the shooting rampage in October. The release of the police footage and 911 calls from that night was a result of a lawsuit from several media organizations, including The New York Times.

The videos came from a camera placed near the necks of two police officers. While all officers are required to wear the cameras, the first officer who entered the room that night did not activate his body camera, according to the Las Vegas sheriff, Joseph Lombardo.

The footage offers a glimpse into several challenges officers had that night.

The vastness of the resort meant it took several minutes for officers to find the room on the 32nd floor.

Even when they reached the elevators, officers could not get up because they had been shut down. At one point, they complained that they were unable to communicate by radio. Later, an officer cursed when he heard other officers saying what they planned to do on a channel that the gunman could listen to. They could not remember which room the gunman was said to be in, initially looking for him on the wrong floor and in the wrong hallway.

The cameras begin by showing the officers in a patrol car racing to the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, as gunshots can be heard in the background and the police radio describes the scene becoming more chaotic.

“What’s the best way to get over there?” the officer says to his partner. “Do we want to go out from event center?”

“I don’t know,” the partner replies. “I don’t know where we need to stop.”

Less than five minutes later, they arrive at the Shark Reef Aquarium, a floor beneath the casino. It is quiet, belying the chaos unfolding nearby.

As they enter the building, one officer shouts to several bewildered guests: “You guys need to get out and go that way on Las Vegas Boulevard. Other way, turn around. Go, go, go!”

Soon after, another officer approaches a security booth inside the hotel.

“You guys need to evacuate the whole casino. You need to get everybody out of here. I don’t care if you have to pull a fire alarm. You’ve got a shooter up there. He’s shot and killed multiple people.”

After officers make their way up to the 29th floor, they face another police unit at the end of the hallway. The confusion was immediately clear.

“Police, police, police, police! Guns down. Guns down!” one shouts.

“OK, it’s friendly, friendly,” another replies.

“OK. We’re going to go back up to 32. If you want to clear the rest of this hallway so we’re not aiming guns at each other.”

“Copy that.”