Police release new batch of Las Vegas shooting records
Las Vegas police on Wednesday released another batch of records from the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting.
The 20 new body camera videos marked the 18th court-ordered release since early May of Metropolitan Police Department audio, video or documents from the Oct. 1 attack, which left 58 concertgoers dead and hundreds more injured.
All the new videos were recorded sometime after the shooting ended and ranged in length from about 27 seconds to about 30 minutes.
In a longer clip, an officer anxiously tries to make his way to the main Route 91 stage.
“We have to get to the main stage, guys,” he says to a group of nearby officers taking cover just outside the festival grounds. “They need our help.”
It takes about four minutes for them to make it inside the venue, where trash litters the ground and puddles of red sporadically mark the asphalt.
“Is anyone injured?” someone can be heard shouting in the background. The same voice calls out a few moments later, asking, “Does anybody need medical attention?”
The officers in the video move forward through the windy festival grounds, briefly taking cover behind a police SUV before they run into another officer deep within the venue.
“Where’s the people that need help?” the officer recording the video asks. “Where’s the people that need help at the main stage?”
“They said everyone that’s on the main stage are 419,” the officer replies, using police code for “dead.”
At least three of the clips released Wednesday show officers clearing hotel rooms inside Mandalay Bay hours after the shooting ended. Occasionally, they startle sleeping people, then instruct the groggy guests to stay in their rooms and lock their doors.
“Try to get some sleep,” one officer says.
In another video, an officer stationed on a Strip pedestrian bridge pulls out his phone at least two hours after the attack, apparently checking for updates.
“More than 50 dead,” he says, sharing the news with nearby officers.
“Made history,” he continues. “Making it one of the deadliest mass shootings in United States history. Right here in Las Vegas.”
Police previously released more than 3,000 pages of witness statements and officer reports, as well as 911 calls and other body camera footage. A Las Vegas Review-Journal examination of those records found that many officers experienced communication problems during the mass shooting response.
The newspaper and other media organizations sued for the records in the days after the shooting. Metro fought their release for months, then began handing over the records in batches of varying size and type after a court forced the department to comply.
Metro said it will release more records next week.
The department released its own 187-page report on the shooting investigation in early August.
A federal report released last week found that Las Vegas police and Clark County firefighters channeled their training well but failed to follow some protocols during their response. The document presented 72 lessons learned.
A separate FBI report is expected sometime after the first anniversary of the shooting.
Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Wade Tyler Millward contributed to this report.
