Video from traffic cameras shows police response, fleeing crowd at Vegas attack

Las Vegas • Las Vegas police released video Wednesday from traffic surveillance cameras along the Las Vegas Strip showing emergency vehicles arriving as the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history unfolded.

A partial review of files made public under court order shows video of police cars streaming down Las Vegas Boulevard and an aircraft view of the Mandalay Bay resort and concert venue where the attack occurred.

The video includes footage from Oct. 1 when shots were being fired into the crowd after 10 p.m. Muzzle flashes of gunfire cannot be seen from the camera view about a block from the concert venue.

As emergency vehicles clog the street, shadows can be seen of people running across a pedestrian bridge and people on the sidewalk clutching each other as they emerge from darkness and pass the camera.

The video is in color but there is no sound.

Courts have ordered police to make public officers’ body-camera video, dispatch logs, witness accounts and officer reports.

The material released Wednesday was the fourth batch of records made public under the court order. Previous material has not detailed a possible motive and instead recounts tales of horror and heroism by officers and witnesses.

Fifty-eight people died and hundreds were injured when gunfire rained from the high-rise Mandalay Bay into the outdoor concert crowd,

Courts ordered the release in response to a lawsuit by The Associated Press and other media organizations.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo has banned department employees from talking about the material. Officer Jacinto Rivera, a department spokesman, said there would be no comment Wednesday.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Breault also declined to comment.

Police and the FBI have said they don’t know a motive for the attack, and the investigation is ongoing.

The agencies say gunman Stephen Paddock acted alone, shooting from a 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay resort into the crowd of 22,000 country music fans. They say the attack had no link to international terrorism.

Authorities say Paddock, 64, a real estate investor and high-stakes gambler, had amassed an arsenal of nearly two dozen assault-style rifles and numerous high-capacity ammunition magazines in the hotel suite where he broke the windows and opened fire for about 10 minutes.

Lombardo has warned that releasing the records would “further traumatize a wounded community.”

On May 2, the department made public several hours of video including footage from two officers’ body cameras showing police blasting through the door of the room where authorities say Paddock killed himself before officers arrived. Paddock is seen dead on the floor.

Two weeks later, the department released 1,200 pages of police reports containing witness statements and officer accounts, including reports from at least two people who said a person they believed to be Paddock ranted in the days prior to the attack about the federal government and gun control.

The claims by those people and others could not be verified because the names of witnesses were blacked out.

The release last week of about 2,100 pages of police reports, witness statements and dispatch logs provided more details of the chaos and confusion at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert. The records also chronicled how officers and hotel security responded.

Some reports described officers racing from casino to casino while debunking reports of multiple shooters and bomb threats. Other officers put themselves in harm’s way to protect wounded and fleeing concert-goers.

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Associated Press journalist Brian Skoloff in Phoenix contributed to this report.

from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/2kAVx7y