Las Vegas Shooter Stephen Paddock Shot Jesus Campos Before Firing On Concert, Police Now Say In Changed Story

In a dramatic new version of the Las Vegas mass shooting timeline that will raise new questions about the police response to the massacre, police now say that gunman Stephen Paddock shot hotel security guard Jesus Campos six full minutes before Paddock opened fire on the crowd at a country music concert below his 32nd floor hotel window, according to a new report late Monday by The Los Angeles Times.

Previously, police said that Campos came across Paddock’s room and took gunfire from through the door, with at least one bullet striking him in the leg, after Paddock had already ceased his hail of gunshots on the panicking crowd, according to a CNN report.

But even though Campos, who miraculously survived with only the leg wound despite a barrage of 200 rounds fired by Paddock through the door, has been credited with providing information to help guide police to the shooter’s perch, for some reason cops did not take up positions outside Paddock’s room until 11:08 p.m. on Sunday, October 1, according to a minute-by-minute account published by The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Paddock started shooting at the crowd at 10:05 p.m. — but he shot Campos at 9:59 p.m., according to the new timeline revealed on Monday by Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo.

The previous timeline had Paddock shooting Campos at 10:18 p.m., according to a report by the national USA Today newspaper.

In addition to raising new questions about the police response, the new timeline also creates an additional layer of mystery around Paddock’s horrifying actions. Initially, police said that Paddock ceased his 10-minute volley of automatic weapons fire when Campos approached his room, on his way to check on an alarm in another guest room, the Times reported.

But with the new information, that Campos was shot before Paddock unleashed his attack, why the gunman ceased firing almost a full hour before police located him is now a question without an answer.

The Times quoted retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s commander and tactical expert Charles “Sid” Heal as saying that the new timeline appears to indicate a lack of communication between hotel security and police. “It doesn’t say much for hotel security,” Heal told the paper.

In the 10 minutes that he fired on the crowd, Paddock killed 58 people and wounded nearly 600 more.

Details emerge of Stephen Paddock’s bizarre casino behaviour before Las Vegas shooting https://t.co/9GVCN1FV17 pic.twitter.com/gdYWMWNiOv

— The Independent (@Independent) October 9, 2017

Police finally entered Paddock’s room at the Mandalay Bay hotel at 11:20 p.m., but by the time they got inside, Paddock had apparently killed himself with a gunshot to his own head. Police found at least 23 firearms in the hotel room, along with two tripods set up in windows, that likely served as rifle mounts for Paddock’s deadly weaponry. How Paddock was able to bring an arsenal of that size through hotel security up to a room on the 32nd floor also remains unclear.

[Featured Image by David Becker/Getty Images]