Las Vegas police shift mass shooting timeline, still have no motive

The Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas — (Image credit: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

Eight days after Stephen Paddock shot nearly 500 people, killing at least 58 of them, investigators still don't have any answers to the big outstanding question: Why? Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters on Monday that he is "frustrated" because "this individual purposefully hid his actions leading up to this event, and it is difficult for us to find answers for those actions." Discovering the motive is "our most important goal," he said.

But when pressed by reporters, Lombardo said there were some "minute changes" to the timeline, notably that Paddock shot Mandalay Bay security guard Jose Campos at 9:59 p.m., six minutes before open firing on the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert below, not at 10:18 p.m., three minutes after the shooting ended. He said Campos had responded to a door alarm on the 32nd floor, not Paddock's door, adding that he would not assume that wounding Campos sped up Paddock's mass shooting. Last week, Lombardo speculated that Campos' presence might have caused Paddock to stop shooting concertgoers. Investigators do not know why he stopped firing after 10 minutes, or when he shot himself.

Lombardo also said that the shooter fired at gas canisters near the concert venue, speculating that, combined with protective gear he had in his suite, he might have been planning to use exploding tanks and the resulting chaos and carnage as a diversion to make an escape. "We do not know whether he had planned to cause additional harm outside of what happened at Mandalay Bay," Lombardo said. "We do not believe there is one particular event in the suspect's life for us to key on. ... We believe he decided to take the lives he did and he had a very purposeful plan that he carried out."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.