Las Vegas shooting massacre: Muzzle flashes from Mandalay Bay hotel

Fellowship of the Minds – by Dr. Eowyn

There are people who say the automatic-weapon fire that killed 58 and wounded 500+ concert goers in Las Vegas on the night of October 1, 2017, did not come from the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, where police and FBI say  lone gunman Stephen Paddock had a suite.

Here’s a video, uploaded to LiveLeak, which was taken right outside and below the Mandalay Bay hotel on the night of the shooting.  

https://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=295176aafeca

The video shows flashes from the window of a top floor of the 45-stories Mandalay Bay hotel, beginning at the 2:21 mark and ending at the 2:22 mark.

Here’s a screen shot I took at the 2:21 mark of the video. I’ve circled the flash in yellow:

The flash appears to have come from the left broken window on the 32nd floor, as shown by this side-by-side comparison of the screenshot from the video (left) and a daylight view of Mandalay Bay showing two broken windows on the 32nd floor (right).

BUT WAIT!

The screenshot from the video has the words “Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino” at the top of the building, but the daytime view has just the words “Mandalay Bay” on top.

I’ve scoured the net for photos of the exterior of Mandalay Bay. In every photo I’ve seen, the hotel has just the words “Mandalay Bay” at the top, not “Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino”.

As Alice in the Wonderland would say: “Curiouser and curiouser!”

The video also shows that after the last volley of automatic rifle shots ended at the 2:55 mark, there was silence, until the 3:25 mark when a single-shot is fired, followed by a second single-shot 10 seconds later at the 3:35 mark.

Reportedly, an unarmed Mandalay Bay security guard named Jesus Campos was the first to take on gunman Paddock on the 32nd floor, and was shot in the leg by Paddock firing through a door. Was that the first single shot heard at the 2:55 mark in the video?

Was the second single-shot 10 seconds later the shot that killed Paddock?

UPDATE:

A reader pointed out that what I mistook for the façade of Mandalay Bay hotel is actually a very large advertisement. (Face palm)

But then that raises another question — why would an advertisement emit muzzle flashes?

UPDATE (OCT. 9):

Thanks to a brilliant FOTM reader, MomOfIV, the mystery is solved.

The “Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino” words are on top of an ad in a bus stop right beneath the hotel. The flashes must then be reflections of muzzle flashes originating from the hotel. In the pic below (from Google Map), I’ve circled in yellow the bus stop ad.

Fellowship of the Minds