Detailed Timeline of Las Vegas Route 91 Shooting Emerges
10/5/2017 by Gil Kaufman
We may never know exactly why Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival last Sunday (Oct. 1), killing 59 people in the largest mass shooting in modern American history. But as investigators continue to dig into the 64 year-old millionaire real estate investor's movements and purchases in the months, days and hours leading up to his insane rampage, a more detailed picture has emerged about the meticulous planning that went into Paddock's unthinkable actions.
This is what we know so far about the night of the tragedy and the events leading up to it, according to a timeline from ABC News and a variety of other news sources.
Thursday, Sept. 28
Paddock checks into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino three days before the shooting, with the Associated Press reporting that he requested a high-level suite overlooking the 15-acre site of the Route 91 festival. A source said he couldn't get the room he originally requested, but then moved to the 32nd-floor suite he opened fire from on Saturday night (Sept. 30).
Saturday, Sept. 30
The shooter moves to the room on the 32nd floor and transports a massive cache of 23 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition to his room. Police say he also set up at least three cameras to monitor the hallway outside. In one of the frequent press updates this week, Las Vegas Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said hotel employees are believed to have entered the room several times over the weekend and found nothing suspicious. Lombardo also said that Paddock had 50 pounds of explosives and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in his car in the hotel parking lot, indicating he may have intended to escape after the shooting.
Sunday, Oct. 1
10:05 p.m.
After using a hammer to break out two windows in his room, the shooter sets up a sniper's nest from which he begins firing down on the crowd of 22,000 at the country festival from a quarter mile away during singer Jason Aldean's set. The bullets rain down at high speed, helped by after-market, legal accessories called bump-stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire more like automatic weapons that can spray hundreds of bullets a minute. The shots are caught on a closed-circuit TV from inside the venue.
Concertgoers initially report thinking that the rapid popping sounds are fireworks associated with the show, but soon realize that they are coming from a firearm, and begin taking cover and fleeing the festival grounds.
10:08 p.m.
According to the Business Insider, officers start to exchange radio messages about the shooting within three minutes, with one exchange featuring a voice saying, "We got shots fired! It sounded like an automatic firearm!"
10:12 p.m.
The first two officers arrive on the 31st floor of the Mandalay Bay and report over the radio that the gunfire is coming from directly above them, according to a timeline provided by the Las Vegas Police Department.
10:15 p.m.
The final shots are fired from the suspect, as evidenced by "a body worn camera."
10:16 p.m.
One of the first social media posts on the shooting hits Twitter. "I'm pretty sure a terrorist attack just happened next to me im at mandalay bay."
i'm pretty sure a terrorist attack just happened next to me im at mandalay bay
— (@GLOKMIN) October 2, 2017
10:17 p.m.
The first two officers arrive on the 32nd floor.
10:18 p.m.
An unarmed hotel security officer tells the LVMPD that he's been shot and gives them the exact location of the suspect's room.
10:25 p.m.
Taxi drivers report receiving the first active shooter message from police telling them to avoid the area around the Mandalay Bay. According to Reuters, it says, "Drivers avoid LV Blvd and Tropicana. Active shooting from Mandalay Bay. Possible 3 shooters."
Police and rescue personnel gather at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Ave. after a reported mass shooting at a country music festival on Oct. 2, 2017 in Las Vegas.
Eight more officers arrive on the 32nd floor and start moving down the hall, clearing every room and looking for any injured patrons. According to the LVMPD, they move in this meticulous manner because they are no longer hearing gunshots, and the situation does not appear to be an active shooting incident.
10:30 p.m.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that University Medical Center of Southern Nevada trauma surgeon Dr. Jay Coates recieves a call to report to the hospital. "They were coming in so fast. We were taking care of bodies. We were just trying to keep people from dying," he tells Associated Press. "Every bed was full." At the same time, Reuters reports that police start herding people inside Mandalay Bay to get them out of the line of fire.
10:38 p.m.
LVMPD send out first tweet about shooting, telling people to avoid the area around the Mandalay Bay.
We're investigating reports of an active shooter near/around Mandalay Bay Casino. Asking everyone to please avoid the area. #LVMPDnews
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
10:40 p.m.
Newsweek reports that officers ask for permission to enter Paddock's room sooner but are told to wait for SWAT teams. At a press conference LVMPD Undersheriff Kevin McMahill defends the decision to wait by explaining that Paddock was "contained" and had stopped firing.
10:55 p.m.
Eight officers arrive in the stairwell on the opposite end of the hallway nearest to the suspect's room.
11:09 p.m.
ABC reports that first responders radio that they are at the end of the hallway on the 32nd floor but are proceeding cautiously to avoid fire from other first responders. "We are going to be peeking out into the hallway. Those officers down the hallway are going to need to acknowledge so we don't have a crossfire," one says.
11:20 p.m.
More than an hour after the shooting ended, the first breach is set off to blow open the door of suite 135 and officers enter the suspect's room. "Breach, breach, breach!" an officer is heard saying. They observe a suspect down on the ground and notice a second door that is not accessible.
11:27 p.m.
The second breach is set off, allowing officers to access the second room. Officers quickly realize there is no one else in the rooms, and announce over the radio that the suspect is down. Officials report that Paddock took his own life, but at press time it has not yet been revealed when he did so.
11:58 p.m.
Two hours after the first shots were fired LVMPD tweet confirmation that "one suspect is down."
Confirming that one suspect is down. This is an active investigation. Again, please do not head down to the Strip at this time.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
12:31 a.m.
LVMPD tweet that the incident is over and that they don't believe there was more than one shooter.
At this time we do not believe there are any more shooters. More information to come shortly from @Sheriff_LVMPD.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
1:30 a.m.
Aldean posts a message on Instagram: "Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still dont know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe. My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. #heartbroken #stopthehate," he writes.
Text/Image Source: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7989241/las-vegas-shooting-timeline-route-91
In 1995, I attended my 1st International Metaphysical Ministry convention in Las Vegas, Nevada and toured the iconic Luxor Pyramid on the Strip, not far from the site of Route 91 Harvest Festival where Stephen Paddock killed 59 people on Sunday, shooting into the panic-stricken crowd through upper windows of Mandalay Bay Resort Casino... ~ JDHWB-R
Kenny Rogers ~ The Gambler (1978)
Sex, Whales and Witchcraft: The Legend of Ichabod Paddock
I've lived in New England my whole life, but I have only been to Nantucket once. It was a memorable trip. The island is full of beautiful historic old homes and lots of upscale amenities. It's a great spot for a posh summer vacation.
This was not always the case. Once it was a desolate isolated island. Herman Melville describes it in Moby Dick (1851):
Nantucket! Take out your map and look at it. See what a real corner of the world it occupies; how it stands there, away off shore, more lonely than the Eddystone lighthouse. Look at it — a mere hillock, and elbow of sand; all beach, without a background. There is more sand there than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting paper. Some gamesome wights will tell you that they have to plant weeds there, they don’t grow naturally; that they import Canada thistles; that they have to send beyond seas for a spile to stop a leak in an oil cask; that pieces of wood in Nantucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome; that people there plant toadstools before their houses, to get under the shade in summer time; that one blade of grass makes an oasis, three blades in a day’s walk a prairie...
This does not sound like the summer playground of millionaires. It was not, but it was the whaling capital of the world. Melville himself sailed on the Charles and Henry, a Nantucket whaling ship, in 1842, which was one of the inspirations for Moby Dick.
Although the Wampanoag who originally lived on Nantucket may have occasionally killed whales, whaling as an industry only began there in 1690 when Ichabod Paddock arrived from Cape Cod. Paddock was a Quaker, an accomplished whaler, and a semi-legendary figure.
There are several legends about Paddock. For example, one claims that while he was in the Pacific he threw his favorite harpoon into a whale. The harpoon reached its mark, but the whale escaped. Thirteen years later, he was once again in the Pacific. His ship sighted a whale, which the crew successfully captured and killed. While they were cutting it up they found a harpoon embedded deep in its flesh. It had the initials "I.P." on it. It was the same whale Paddock had harpooned thirteen years ago.
One of the weirder legends tells how Paddock's ship was pursuing a whale named Crookjaw. No matter how hard Paddock's crew threw their harpoons they just bounced off Crookjaw. Even Ichabod himself could not harpoon the whale. Frustrated and unwilling to admit defeat, Ichabod put a knife between his teeth and dove into the ocean. As his terrified crew watched he swam right towards Crookjaw.
Crookjaw opened his mouth and swallowed Paddock whole.
Much to his surprise, Paddock did not die inside the darkness of a whale's stomach. Instead, he found himself inside a comfortable ship's cabin. Lanterns hung from the ceiling, and a large feather bed sat against one wall. A table filled the center of the room, and two people were playing cards at it. One was a beautiful blonde woman who had a shining green fish tail instead of legs. The other was a dark-clad man who smelled of fire and brimstone.
When the card players saw Paddock the dark man threw down his cards in anger and disappeared. The blonde woman (mermaid? witch?) smiled at Paddock.
"What were you wagering on?" he asked her.
"Why you, of course." She smiled again.
Meanwhile, the crew of Paddock's ship waited for some sign of their captain. After swallowing him Crookjaw just sat immobile, floating silently as the waves splashed against him. The crew didn't know what else to do. Their harpoons and knives were useless against the whale.
After several hours, Crookjaw opened his mouth and Paddock swam out on a torrent of water. He climbed back aboard his ship. "Boys," he said with a big grin, "We need to come back here tomorrow. I've got more work to do!"
Paddock and his crew came back the next day, and once again Paddock swam into the whale's mouth. His crew waited for hours while Crookjaw floated passively in the water until their captain emerged from the whale. Then they came back the next day. And the day after that.
This went on for quite a while. Rumors began to circulate around Nantucket that Paddock had been seduced by a devilish woman who lived in a whale, and they eventually reached the ears of his wife. Mrs. Paddock was young, beautiful, and unwilling to cede her husband to a witchy mermaid. She developed a plan.
One day as Paddock was about to set sail his wife ran down the wharf to his ship. "Husband!" she cried, "Husband! I have brought you a gift."
In her hands she held a glistening new harpoon. It's sharp tip shone brightly in the sun. Paddock thanked her and set sail for his assignation with her gift in his hand. Mrs. Paddock smiled a cold smile as the ship left the wharf.
When the ship found Crookjaw in his usual spot Paddock prepared to dive into the sea, but one of his crew stopped him. "Captain," he said, "Don't you think you should try that new harpoon your wife gave you? It's mighty fine. Maybe it can pierce the monster's skin."
Grudgingly, Paddock took up the harpoon. He knew it couldn't harm the enchanted whale, and he was eager to see his marine mistress. Still, he needed to keep up some level of appearance. He drew back his arm and threw the shining harpoon at Crookjaw.
The harpoon easily pierced the whale's hide, and with a hideous groan Crookjaw rolled over on his back. He was dead. Mrs. Paddock had asked a local blacksmith to forge a harpoon with a silver tip, and silver is one metal that always defeats witchcraft.
The crew didn't find a ship's cabin inside the whale when they cut open its stomach, just bile and half-digested fish. Paddock searched desperately through the offal for some sign of his lover, but all he found was long yellow seaweed and a few seashells.
This story appears in quite a few places and with several variations. In some versions the seductress is clearly a witch, and in others a mermaid. I found this version in Nathaniel Philbrick's Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602 - 1890. Philbrick notes that Paddock was eventually kicked out of the Quakers after he "sailed about in a vessel where dancing was performed and he a partaker therein." The story about Crookjaw may be a legend but it seems to say something true about Paddock's personality.
Witches and sailors have a fraught (and often sexual) relationship in New England folklore. For example, Captain Sylvanus Rich was seduced by a witch who gave him the "sweet milk of Satan," while Skipper Ireson was ridden like a stallion at night by a witch as punishment. The Paddock legend is more elaborate but clearly fits in this genre.
Hercules, Hesione, and the Sea Monster, from the Museum of Fine Arts
Heroes have been swallowed by giant sea monsters throughout history. For example, Hercules was swallowed by a sea monster that came to eat the Trojan princess Hesione. He emerged alive several days later after killing the monster from the inside, but not before losing all his hair due to the acid in the monster's stomach. Two lessons to learn: Hercules is invulnerable but his hair isn't, and sea monster acid is nature's depilatory.
The most famous person to emerge from a whale's stomach is of course the Biblical prophet Jonah. Jonah was told by God to preach in Nineveh, but didn't want to because he was afraid of the hostile reception he'd get there. He booked passage on a ship going in the opposite direction, but the crew threw him overboard after God besieged the ship with a storm. A whale swallowed Jonah, swam to Nineveh, and vomited him up on the shore. Jonah got the message and started preaching.
In the movie Pinocchio, Gepetto is swallowed by a whale, and Pinocchio eventually goes inside to save him. This act of sacrifice turns the puppet Pinocchio into a real boy.
Hercules, Jonah and Pinocchio find heroism, destiny and redemption inside their respective whales. Ichabod Paddock finds witchcraft, secret sex and the Devil. But after all, this is New England.
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| ~ Jonah and the Whale ~ |
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