Triangulated Crossfire
Joe Quinn and I published analyses on the Las Vegas Massacre, and we also discussed it on a couple of our shows, arguing that the facts of the shooting do not support the premise that Paddock acted alone. We further concluded that Paddock was probably a patsy - in the sense that he either played a minor role, or no role at all, in the shooting.
I would suggest that at least three gunmen targeted the festival venue during those bloody ten minutes shortly after 10pm. Smashed-out windows in both the suite and the adjoining room on the north end of 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay make sense only for two gunmen, both of whom would have escaped long before SWAT teams breached the door - over an hour later - and found Paddock dead from a gunshot wound, allegedly self-inflicted just as the door was blown open, hence the reason they gave for why they didn't hear this fatal gunshot.
While one of these two Mandalay Bay gunmen 'strafed' the festival venue with heavy machine-gunfire, the other likely divided his time between checking video feed from the pre-placed cameras monitoring the hallway, and picking out venue attendees with a sniper rifle - the first few cracks from which are likely what we hear in attendees' video footage of the earliest moments of the attack, and any subsequent shots from which would have been audibly masked by the machine-gun.
Any given individual's account of gunfire from an alternate source may be put down to panic and confusion in the moment - and, certainly, this was an extremely chaotic and traumatizing event - but many attendees and venue staff reported, even days and weeks later, that they were additionally being fired at from a position or positions much closer to the venue, at ground level to the east or southeast, from either within or nearby the staff parking lot between the venue and the outer perimeter of McCarran International Airport.
A third gunmen was likely situated on the east side of the venue in a position to engage in an L-shaped ambush, or triangulated crossfire, relative to the Mandalay Bay position, targeting fleeing venue attendees as they poured out of what were, initially, the only open exit points along the venue's eastern side (Giles Street).In the above map, triangulation between the north tower of the Mandalay Bay, the main crowd in front of the stage at the festival venue, and thus a possible ground location for a second shooting position, is marked in yellow. Most attendees fled in the opposite direction from the Mandalay Bay, through exits 4a, 5 and 6 on the eastern side of the venue, and into lots and side streets that were only partly illuminated and sectioned off with fencing and obstructing vehicles. Beyond those, to the south and east, is open ground until the purple line marking the perimeter of McCarran Airport.
While the Mandalay Bay shooting position was fixed to one location on the 32nd floor, a ground-based second team to the east of the venue would have been free to change position. The police dispatch commander can be heard on the Las Vegas Metro Police Department (LVMPD) scanner (transcript here), almost 30 minutes after the gunfire ended, informing all units that "we have two [crime] scenes," one "at Ali Baba & Giles, east of the Catholic shrine, as well as in the Mandalay Bay," before another central dispatcher confirms, about 7 minutes later, that "the Mandalay Bay and Ali Baba & Giles are the two shooting locations." The location of this second "scene" is marked above with a blue circle.
Note that these two locations bracket the desert lot that served as a staff parking and storage area for the duration of the festival. Thousands of festival attendees and staff fled into that lot, and although most turned north in the direction of the Tropicana casino, hundreds continued heading east, breached airport perimeter fences, and crossed the McCarran Airport runways. Along the way, many reported that gunfire sounded closer as they moved away from the venue, and others reported seeing people get shot in the parking lot.
It's known that at least one of the victims - Melissa Ramirez - was fatally shot at the northeast corner of the lot, marked as a red cross on our map, close to the airport boundary. Matching CCTV and police body cam footage confirm that she and several others, who had been shot at, or close to this location, took refuge close by in the small parking lot of a business park adjoining the airport grounds. However, in the final LVMPD report published a year ago, which included a photo and a map showing locations of the deceased, Ramirez is listed as having died at the Desert Rose resort, to where her body was presumably initially transported.Photo of the Las Vegas Village grounds published in the LVMPD final report, showing locations of the deceased inside the venueThe victims numbered 21 through 26 are listed by the LVMPD as having died at the perimeter of, or just beyond, the festival grounds. Numbers 21 through 24 were specifically "located and recovered near the medical tent in the northeast portion of the venue" supporting police dispatch reports and eyewitness reports that the medical tent located in the northeast corner of the venue was deliberately targeted.Map of the Las Vegas Village grounds and surrounding area published in the LVMPD final report, showing locations of the deceased outside the venue
In addition, Melissa Ramirez, listed as victim 29 in the report, is located at the Desert Rose resort along with victims 27 and 28, so their bodies were likely also moved there afterwards. In fact, the LVMPD report says that the seven victims shown in their map (above) were probably "placed at these locations." The report says that the remaining victims, numbered 32 through 58, died en route to or at Las Vegas hospitals.
Others besides Ramirez were, therefore, probably shot from a ground-level position within or near the staff parking lot as they headed east away from the venue. Certainly, Ramirez was not shot and killed by a bullet fired from an AR-15 handled by a 64-year-old amateur picking her out in a relatively dark location from over 2,000 feet away on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay. Finally, the locations published in the police report of those who died at or near the venue, broadly clustered as they are into two defined areas - in front of the main stage nearest to the Mandalay Bay, and at the opposite end of the venue - supports the case for two crime scenes; two target locations from two shooting positions.
Comment: Morrissey isn't afraid to speak out about any situation:
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