It was initially believed there was a six-minute gap from the time Stephen Paddock shot a Mandalay Bay security guard to before he opened fire on an outdoor music festival two weeks ago.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who oversees the Las Vegas police department, told reporters there was almost no gap between Paddock, who was heavily armed with an arsenal of weapons, shot at Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos outside his room and when he opened fire on the concertgoers.
Mr Lombardo had previously said: “What we have learned is the security guard was encountered by the suspect prior to his shooting to the outside world.”
In a chronology of events provided on Monday, Mr Lombardo said Paddock started spraying 200 rounds from his suite into the hallway of the Mandalay Bay at 9.59pm, wounding an unarmed security guard in the leg.
Mike Lichtenwalner/Handout
Stephen Paddock killed 58 people from his Mandalay Bay hotel room
Six minutes later, the gunman unleashed a barrage of bullets on the festival crowd, according to that police timeline, before killing himself with a gunshot to the head.
But Mr Lombardo said he now believes the security guard received his wounds close to the time the shooter started firing.
Mr Lombardo said today the initial time he gave of 9.59 was when the security guard attempted to breach a door nearby the shooter’s.
The question mark over the six minute gap had raised questions over the reactions of the police and hotel security and whether or not they could have reacted faster to prevent the number of fatalities and injuries in the attack on October 1.
Paddock killed 58 people and injured a further 546 before killing himself.
Newly released police bodycam footage shows chaos of Las Vegas massacre
Wed, October 4, 2017
Police body camera video released at a press conference has revealed the manic chaos of the Las Vegas mass shooting as officers tried to figure out the location of the gunman.
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A frame grab taken from a bodycam video released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) shows officers responding to the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival near Mandalay Bay hotel
Mr Lombardo said most of the wounded had now been released from hospital but 45 still needed close medical care, some with critical injuries.
Unanswered questions remain over the apparent actions of Paddock, in particular why he appeared to have stopped firing on the 22,00 concertgoers who were attending the Route 91 festival along the Vegas Strip.
It took police an hour and 12 minutes from the first 911 call reporting the incident to locate Paddock.
Once police breached the shooter’s room on the 32nd floor, the 64-year-old had already committed suicide.
Paddock spent three days at the hotel before carrying out the horrifying attack.
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One of the weapons found in Stephen Paddock’s hotel room
He used a stash of 23 weapons to fire down a barrage of bullets from room 135 on the 32nd floor of the hotel.
Most of those found in the hotel room are military-style rifles, while two were modified with a “bump stock” device.
Police also revealed that Paddock fired special ‘incendiary’ bullets at a jet fuel tank, probably in the hopes of causing a massive explosion. Authorities had said earlier that he fired two conventional rounds at the tank, but failed to penetrate it.
The rounds, meant to ignite what they hit, were found inside Paddock’s room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and near the fuel tank a short distance away on the grounds of McCarran International Airport.
Despite the ongoing investigation the US authorities are no nearer to establishing a motive for Paddock’s actions.
Mike Lichtenwalner
The view from Stephen Paddock’s hotel room
A statement from MGM Resorts International, owners of the Mandalay Bay hotel, issued at 10pm yesterday said: “Although we prefer not to comment on the details of the investigation, we are issuing this statement to correct some of the misinformation that has been reported.
“The 9.59pm PDT time was derived from a Mandalay Bay report manually created after the fact without the benefit of information we now have.
“We are now confident that the time stated in this report is not accurate. We know that shots were being fired at the festival lot at the same time as, or within 40 seconds after, the time Jesus Campos first reported that shots were fired over the radio
“Metro officers were together with armed Mandalay Bay security officers in the building when Campos first reported that shots were fired over the radio.
“These Metro officers and armed Mandalay Bay security officers immediately responded to the 32nd floor.
“We will continue to work with law enforcement as we have from the first moments of this tragedy as they work toward developing an accurate timeline.”