LAS VEGAS (FOX5) – Even though it has been three months since Stephen Paddock opened fire into a crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, the public still knows very little about what happened. Las Vegas Metro police have not released what kind of guns Paddock used or videos of Paddock inside Mandalay Bay and the investigation thus far has not yielded a motive for the massacre.
Inside a district courtroom on Jan. 16, a lawyer for multiple media outlets argued why information pertaining to 1 October is crucial to helping Las Vegas heal, but the lawyer for Metro Police said they can’t release any information because there are still suspects being investigated.
“Without naming names, there are potential charges against other people, because of the ongoing investigation?”, District Court Judge Elissa Cadish asked Metro’s Lawyer Nick Crosby.
“Yes there are charges being investigated,” Crosby replied. That was the biggest piece of new information revealed Tuesday. Lawyers for Metro police squared off with lawyers representing multiple media outlets over the unsealing of search warrants and evidence seized.
Metro police maintain because of possible new suspects they should not have to release anything pertaining to the obtaining of the search warrants or any evidence seized because of them.
“Are they investigating obstruction of justice? Lies to Metro under oath from Mandalay Bay employees? Is it people who sold [Paddock] the guns or ammunition? Or did someone have knowledge of what he was going to do? Now [Metro Police] are just having us speculate more and more and more,” Craig Island, an attorney for victim’s of 1 October said.
In response to the news about possible charges, the judge asked Metro’s lawyer Nick Crosby how long it might take for those to come to fruition, to which Crosby responded, maybe 60 days.
“Today is the first time we’ve heard there are additional suspects out there, this contradicts what they have been saying, [Sheriff] Lombardo has said there are no other suspects,” Maggie McCletchie, a lawyer for the media outlets said.
McCletchie argues Metro has had three months to show they are still investigating, and that there are in fact other suspects, and said enough is enough; the public has a right to know what happened.
“There are important therapeutic effects of getting information out there after a tragedy,” she said. “The public has a right to know and shouldn’t just have to rely on what the sheriff and other law enforcement is saying.”
Metro said they cannot discuss why they cannot release evidence because it would negatively impact their investigation and asked the judge for an on-camera or private meeting to prove their case. Judge Cadish gave them until next week, and said by the end of next week she will decide whether information related to the search warrants will be unsealed, remain sealed or if she needs to have a meeting with Metro.
Attorney Maggie McCletchie said one week is too long and said every day that goes by is another violation of the first amendment.
“The public has a dire need to know what happened on 1 October,” McCletchie said.
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http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/37279598/metro-lawyers-there-are-additional-suspects-in-1-october
” “Are they investigating obstruction of justice? Lies to Metro under oath from Mandalay Bay employees? Is it people who sold [Paddock] the guns or ammunition? Or did someone have knowledge of what he was going to do? Now [Metro Police] are just having us speculate more and more and more,” Craig Island, an attorney for victim’s of 1 October said. ”
Note there is no mention of the possibility of other shooters, even though we have audio and video evidence that there were.