LAS VEGAS — On the ground, they were minutes of fear, of blood and makeshift ambulances, of a twanging guitar silenced by bullets that would not stop. On police radios, they were minutes of confusion and coordination, as emergency responders scanned the gleaming facade of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and raced up its stairwell, trying to get to the gunman before the next volley of gunfire.
When the shooting stopped, another hour passed before the gunman, Stephen Paddock, was found dead in the luxury suite that he had turned into a killing perch. A total of 79 minutes elapsed from 10:08 p.m., when the shooting was first reported, to 11:27 p.m., when a SWAT team burst through the door of Mr. Paddock’s room on the 32nd floor. After killing 58 and wounding about 500 more, he appeared to have shot himself in the head.
Audio recordings of emergency workers’ cross talk and videos and interviews from the scene show a night when police officers quickly focused on a window in the Mandalay Bay, and pinpointed Mr. Paddock’s location when he fired through the door at a hotel security officer. Still, they waited until they had cleared the surrounding hotel rooms and assembled a SWAT team before trying to confront him.
As they moved into place, the concertgoers below were running for their lives.
Read the latest on the Las Vegas shooting with Thursday’s live updates.