Las Vegas Security Guard Will Be Subpoenaed for by Shooting Victim’s Attorney

Las Vegas Security Guard Will Be Subpoenaed for by Shooting Victim’s Attorney
A view of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Oct. 3, 2017. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Chris Jasurek
10/30/2017
Updated:
10/30/2017

Jesus Campos, the Mandalay Bay security guard who was shot in connection with the Las Vegas massacre, will be subpoenaed to explain the timeline of events on that grim October night.

Campos was working as a security guard in the Mandalay Bay resort on Oct. 1, when Stephen Paddock opened fire with a series of rapid-fire weapons at a crowd attending a country music concert.

After the shooting, Campos disappeared from sight. He has made only one public appearance since the shooting, on the Ellen DeGeneres show on Oct. 18.

The interview has been criticized for its failure to ask any of the tough questions surrounding the case, and led to some speculation on Ellen’s possible connection with MGM Grand.

Campos will be forced to testify by a lawyer representing Rachel Sheppard, a 26-year-old from California who was shot three times during the attack.

Sheppard’s suit is one of six filed related to the attack.

Sheppard was shot in the chest and abdomen as she attended the concert, across the street from the resort.

“I flew like three feet,” she told the New Yorker. “I mean, I just flew like a fish, just straight back.”

“People kept picking me up and dropping me, and picking me up and dropping me, because we kept hearing the shots,” Sheppard said.

Somehow during the attack, one of Sheppard’s lumbar vertebrae was cracked—possibly while being dropped during one of these abortive rescue attempts.

Sheppard is suing MGM Resorts International, the owners of Mandalay Bay, Live Nation, a bump stock maker, and gunman Stephen Paddock’s estate.

A “bump stock” is a mechanical device attached to the back of a firearm which uses recoil energy to pull the weapons back against the shooter’s trigger finger, allowing the gun to fire faster than the shooter could pull the trigger.

Paddock used at least one such device to effectively turn one of his semi-automatic AR-15 rifles into fully automatic, rapid fire machine guns. Some reports say that all twelve rifles he used were outfitted with them.

Timeline Inconsistencies

Campos was working as a security guard at the Mandalay Bar resort on Oct. 1, the night of the shooting. He initially claimed he was investigating an alarm set off by an open room door where he found Paddock firing out the window.

Campos was shot in the leg, but despite his wound, supposedly directed police to the gunman’s room, and later helped evacuate guests.

No one disputes that Campos was shot in the leg—but when, how, and why is unclear.

The original story was that Campos had approached Paddock’s room and distracted the shooter, possibly saving lives.

However, there have been inconsistent reports about when Campos reported hearing gunfire and when he was shot.

Initially the police said Campos was shot after Paddock opened fire on the concert while the concert was underway. On Oct. 9, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said Campos was shot at 9:59 p.m., six minutes before the concert began. Then on Oct. 13, Sheriff Lombardo said Campos was shot by the gunman at 10:05 p.m.

Destiny Alvers who attended the Route 91 country music festival and helped rescue her friend who was shot, reacts at a makeshift memorial on the Las Vegas Strip on Oct. 3, 2017. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
Destiny Alvers who attended the Route 91 country music festival and helped rescue her friend who was shot, reacts at a makeshift memorial on the Las Vegas Strip on Oct. 3, 2017. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
Questions remain on why the police had to search for the shooter’s room for twelve minutes if there was a security guard already at the door. According to a former guard, security personnel at Mandalay Bay use electronic logs to record their whereabouts, LA Times reported.

“There was no alarm system for opened doors when I was there,” the former guard said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss security issues. “You know how often people would have to call hotel guests if that was the case?”

Campos also had a radio. On the Ellen DeGeneres show he claimed he called in the attack on his radio after he had been shot.

Campos said on the show that he went to the 32nd floor because of a stairwell door that wasn’t opening. He said he couldn’t open the door so he took the elevator from the 31st to the 32nd floor, where he saw that the door had been secured shut with a metal brace.

Mysterious Disappearance

After the shooting, Campos seemed to drop out of sight. First it seemed he was holed up in his home, with hired security guards out front.

https://twitter.com/CraigNews3LV/status/918180339117277184

Campos was completely out of sight for several days. He then turned up at the San Ysidro border crossing in California—reentering the United States from Mexico about a week after the shooting.

This raises questions about how an important witness with a bullet wound in his leg could disappear from a crime scene and leave the country without police knowing where he was and for how long.

From NTD.tv