The gunshot fired by a police officer inside Stephen Paddock’s Mandalay Bay hotel room was accidental, authorities say.
Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo says a Metropolitan Police Department officer’s firearm went off sometime after police entered the suite, but the round or rounds were not fired in the same room as where Paddock was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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Lombardo also said that the incident is under investigation and that no one was hit by the gunshot.
“It happened, and we’re investigating it, just like we do with any officer-involved use of force,” Lombardo told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Nobody was struck.”
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It’s unclear what caused the weapon to go off, and Lombardo said the officer would not be identified.
Lombardo also confirmed Monday that the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay, where Paddock’s corner suite was located, did not have security cameras facing his suite or the stairwell door that he had apparently sealed sometime before the shooting. The only cameras on the floor faced the elevators.
Uncertainty has swirled around the timeline of the attack that left 58 people dead and hundreds others injured. Previously, authorities had said no police officers had fired weapons after the mass shooting.
Most recently, the New York Times‘ video forensics team put together a timeline that they believe gives the most comprehensive account for the night’s tragic events, as police and Mandalay Bay have differing timelines.
However, all accounts agree that Paddock opened fire into the crowd of the Route 91 Harvest Festival for 10 minutes, volleying his rounds of automatic gunfire.
Read more about timeline disputes here.
