Las Vegas authorities have released police bodycam footage from the night of the deadly October 1 shooting at Route 91 Harvest Festival, which killed 58 people and injured hundreds more.
The footage is from the bodycams of responding officers who reported directly to the outdoor concert venue that Stephen Paddock showered with bullets from his suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. Paddock fatally shot himself as law enforcement agents breached his hotel room. A motive for the mass shooting is still not known.
The image were released following a judge’s order in late April requiring the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to release audio and video and footage along with investigative documents related to the mass shooting. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by multiple media outlets for access to the records. The department has been releasing the files on a weekly rolling basis, a process that is expected to continue for several weeks or more.
ABC News 7 Las Vegas and the Los Angeles Times are among the media outlets that received the bodycam footage earlier this week. The footage shows unidentified officers at the site of the shooting, rushing to aid injured concertgoers and help others escape, and working to assess the source of the gunfire.
In video published by the Los Angeles Times, the loud crackle of gunshots can be heard in the background as police jump into action. One of the officers can be heard shouting that the bullets are coming from the Mandalay Bay, across the street from the concert venue.
The blurry black-and-white footage shows officers approaching groups of concert attendees to determine who needs help. A man appearing to work for the concert venue can be seen and heard offering his help to the officers. An officer repeatedly asks for the venue lights to be turned off, so that the shooter cannot so easily see the crowd.
“Every single light,” the officer can be heard yelling.
The bodycam footage appears to show the same officer moving through the crowd, and appears to find someone who is injured.
“Is that a gunshot wound?” the officer asks. Soon after, the officer comes upon another victim, described by the Los Angeles Times as a woman.
“Let’s get her on a grate,” the officer says as another woman asks if they’ve gotten the shooter.
At one point another woman wearing a cowboy hat reportedly directed officers to yet another injured person.
“There’s a woman with a bullet wound in her head in the middle aisle there,” the woman reportedly said, pointing in the direction of the injured person.
The Clark County Sheriff is expected to release a final report of the deadly mass shooting sometime next month.
[Feature image: AP Photo/John Locher, File]
