Carnage, chaos and terror revealed in new police videos of Las Vegas shooting - Los Angeles Times
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Carnage, chaos and terror revealed in new police videos of Las Vegas shooting

Some of the most graphic and terrifying videos of the mass shooting in Las Vegas were released by police Wednesday — the sixth release of records connected with the deadly massacre.

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Some of the most graphic and terrifying videos of the mass shooting in Las Vegas were released by police Wednesday — the sixth cache of items connected with the deadly massacre at a country music festival in October.

In a video from a police officer’s body camera, scared and wounded people are triaged on a street and sidewalk. A man walks up to an officer and asks whether he can get an ambulance for a woman shot in the lungs.

“This guy was shot in the head here,” the unidentified officer replies, pointing to a man by a tree.

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“We’re OK. We’re OK,” two women say, walking past the officer as he heads toward the man, navigating past people holding their wounds — and each other.

Later in the video, a woman is taken from a pickup truck — her limp body put into an ambulance crowded with other people. “She’s DOA,” a voice says.

Other body camera videos detail police under fire from Stephen Paddock, the man shooting from his 32nd Floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino down at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. Paddock killed 58 and wounded hundreds on Oct. 1 before killing himself.

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“I’m trying to get medical,” an officer says moments after gunfire erupted and screams were heard. His camera is obscured partially by clothing.

“This is what we’ll do,” he starts to tell people, when another volley of gunfire begins — a heavy, steady clacking sound. He ducks down. When the shooting stops, the officer moves to an area with tents where people are running.

One man sprints, falls and rolls. He looks stunned. Then he gets up and takes off again. The officer asks someone to turn off any lights to make it harder for the gunman to see. “Every single light,” he yells.

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Moving along a wall, he keeps directing people to run to a safer location. The glow of flashing red and blue lights dances around the wall.

Then they make a break for it.

“Are you hit?” he asks the first person he sees.

“No.”

But the next person was.

“Is that a gunshot wound?” he asks, leaning down.

He again asks for lights to be turned down. “So he can’t see us,” the officer says.

They find another wounded person. A woman. “Let’s get her on a grate,” he says.

“Did you get the shooter?” a woman asks while he’s trying to get the wounded woman on the makeshift stretcher.

‘I don’t know.”

Voices are raised as a man who says he’s an off-duty police officer asks if he can help. Another is a firefighter. Off camera, a voice yells out, “Does anybody need a tourniquet?”

More wounded. There’s a man with a spinal injury. The officer tries to figure out how to get a gate open to move people through it. In the background, people stagger and walk through the concert grounds — sometimes directionless.

The lights still haven’t been turned off. The officer asks someone again to try to get them dimmed. There hasn’t been anymore gunfire from the Mandalay Bay, but at the moment nobody knows why.

“A tourniquet,” the voice yells again. “I have belts!” he screams.

A wounded man is loaded into a yellow wheelbarrow. “The shaking hurts,” he says as the officer hustles him over the bumpy terrain. “It felt like a beanbag hit me really hard.”

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They get to safety and the officer watches two other people wheel the man away. The officer turns around, and there are more.

“There’s a woman with a bullet wound in her head in the middle aisle there,” a woman in a white dress and cowboy boots says, pointing.

A video from a different body camera reveals an officer pinned behind a car and, in between gunfire, directing people to take cover behind the vehicle as well.

The 28 videos released also include police cars racing to Mandalay Bay. One video shows officers clearing rooms inside the hotel — directing guests to grab some clothes and leave while police attempt to secure the area. Many show officers trying to direct people to safety. The videos vary in length — some are a few minutes and some longer than half an hour.

Police have now released about 1,000 calls to 911 connected with the shooting — along with witness statements, interviews with victims, traffic surveillance footage and body camera footage of police breaching the room where Paddock was ensconced.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo has said a final report of findings related to the shooting will be released next month. Authorities have not pinned down a motive for Paddock’s deadly attack.

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The 64-year-old was known as a heavy gambler, and Lombardo has suggested he had been on a losing streak before the shooting. Paddock began amassing an arsenal of weapons and ammunition a year before the shooting, and when search warrants were executed, his parked car at Mandalay Bay was found to contain explosives.

Authorities believe Paddock acted alone.

[email protected]

Twitter: @davemontero


UPDATES:

6 p.m.: This article was updated with additional scenes captured on police videos.

This article was originally published at 5:15 p.m.

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