Documents released on Thursday from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department LVMPD point to multiple shooters and a contaminated crime scene in an already controversial investigation into the Las Vegas shooting over a year ago.
The LVMPD released 18 voluntary statements made by officers who responded to the shooting in Las Vegas October 1, 2017. One of the documents that stood out from the rest was the sworn statement of Sergeant William Matchko (P#8525), document #11, in which he states the LVMPD knew of multiple shooters who they planned to wiretap after they discovered Stephen Paddock’s dead body in a suspected suicide.
In what is a routine procedure, officers are often asked to give a statement very soon after an event, commonly referred to as a witness officer interview. Matchko’s interview was conducted by the LVMPD – Force Investigation Team on October 3, 2017 at 6:40PM, just two days after the Las Vegas shooting.
Matchko got to Mandalay Bay shortly after the shooting had stopped but joined the teams who eventually made their way into the room over an hour after the last shots were fired. Before the breach of room 32-135 at the Mandalay Bay hotel, the reported location where the shooting reportedly took place, he was overlooking the men who were making their way down the 100 wing towards 32-135.
In Sergeant Matchko’s statement, he described how upon entering room 32-135, he immediately realized that alleged Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock had been dead for a long time prior to SWAT entering the room.
“So I go in there. Um, and I could see the suspect laying on the ground and the blood had started to, ah– started to coagulate by his head. So it appears that based on the time I didn’t–there–I didn’t think it– it looked like there was no way that the gunshots that we did from the time frame based on the blood coagulating like they shot him. You know, when I looked at him I immediately thought to myself this guy has been dead for more than the time we’ve been in this room.”
On January 30, 2018, a series of police search warrant documents regarding the Las Vegas shooting were unsealed by a Nevada judge. One of the documents unsealed details a search warrant request from 3:02 a.m. on Oct. 2, in which Sergeant Jerry MacDonald, the sergeant who sought the search warrant and also helped author the preliminary investigative report, said officers witnessed Paddock kill himself.
“As SWAT officers breached room 135, they observed Stephen Paddock place a gun to his head and fire one round.”
MacDonald’s statement in that initial warrant request was the first warrant request he authored after the Vegas shooting.
However, According to an investigative report released by LVMPD on Jan. 19, the 10-minute shooting spree ended at 10:18 p.m. on Oct. 1.
At 11:20 p.m., LVMPD SWAT and members of the Strike team entered room 31-135 and *found* Paddock dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Not only does Sergeant Matchko’s statement directly contradict LVMPD Sheriff Joe Lombardo’s claim that Paddock killed himself just moments before SWAT entered the suite at Mandalay Bay, but it also contradicts claims made by Sergeant Jerry MacDonald, in which he stated that officers witnessed Paddock commit suicide.
On that night, police say Paddock, 64, opened fire from his 32nd floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino onto a crowd gathered at a country music festival, killing 58 people and injuring over 800 more. LVMPD and the FBI have still not provided a motive for the shooting, remaining adamant that Paddock was a “lone wolf”.
Further examination of Sergeant Matchko’s statement also challenges claims made by Lombardo and the FBI that Paddock was a lone wolf shooter.
Matchko stated and emphasized that “there’s a million other active shooters” at the time officers found Paddock’s dead body inside suite 32-135 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
“They go in, they say, “We’re gonna blow this other door.” “Um, as they walk into the room, mind you on the radio there’s a million other active shooters being called out in all these other hotels. They put the second charge on the door. Um, they blow the door. As soon as that I hear the second explosion now the fire alarm goes off again and I hear the (unintelligible). I hear the what sound like a burst fire but it was very muffled. So it sounded like two or three rounds went off. And I’m – I’m down there I’m trying to make my way through the room I’m like, okay, I was like, “Did the suspect shoot at us? Did we shoot the suspect, are we in a gunfight, what’s going on,” and they were all pretty calm. So they all seemed a little bit like embarrassed. And I guess one of – O’Donnell or one of them had a negligent or accidental discharge I don’t know what the proper term would be.”
Read the full story from IlLOOMinate Media
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