LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the mass shooting in Las Vegas (all times local): 2:15 p.m. The corporate owner of the high-rise Las Vegas Strip casino from which a gunman unleashed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the mass shooting in Las Vegas (all times local):
2:15 p.m.
The corporate owner of the high-rise Las Vegas Strip casino from which a gunman unleashed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history is squeezing a disputed police timeline of the start of the massacre down to seconds.
MGM Resorts International said in a statement Thursday that shots were fired into a music festival crowd “at the same time as, or within 40 seconds after” a security guard first reported by hotel dispatch radio that shots were fired.
The casino company says Las Vegas police accounts saying the casino security guard was wounded at 9:59 p.m. Oct. 1, and that gunfire out the hotel windows began 6 minutes later, are inaccurate.
The statement also says Las Vegas police and armed Mandalay Bay casino security officers were “in the building” when the guard reported the shooting and “immediately responded to the 32nd floor.”
Police have said the shooter, Stephen Paddock, fired a barrage into the hallway toward the guard and a casino maintenance worker, and fired assault-style weapons out the casino windows for about 10 minutes before killing himself with a gunshot to the head.
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1:25 p.m.
Dozens of fellow “yellow shirt” security guards and hundreds of other people are mourning a Las Vegas man who died helping people escape the deadly Las Vegas concert shooting.
Loved ones and dignitaries at a funeral Thursday for 21-year-old Erick Silva hailed the guard as a hero for helping people climb over a barricade at an outdoor country music festival as the gunman perched high in a casino-hotel tower unleashed more than 1,000 bullets into the crowd.
Silva was a Contemporary Services Corporation security guard working the Route 91 Harvest Festival when he was shot in the head on October 1. He was among the 58 people killed in the massacre. Hundreds of others were wounded.
Silva’s boss Gina Argento says Silva took pride in his work especially his ability to spot fake wristbands at the major events that he worked at over the last three years.
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12:35 p.m.
A U.S. official says the Mandalay Bay hotel casino didn’t notify police that gunshots had been fired inside the tower until after a gunman opened fire on the crowd outside at a country music festival.
The official, who was briefed by law enforcement, wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday.
The disclosure means there was a delay of some six minutes in summoning police to the scene as the gunman began firing in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The hotel previous questioned the timeline released by police.
Two hotel employees had called for help and reported gunman Stephen Paddock sprayed a hallway with bullets and struck an unarmed security guard in the leg.
Police said Monday that was six minutes before Paddock opened fire on the crowd, killing 58 people and injuring nearly 500 others.
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10:30 a.m.
Nevada’s two U.S. senators want mortgage payment relief for family members of victims of the Las Vegas massacre as they deal with medical and funeral costs.
Republican Sen. Dean Heller and Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto sent a letter Thursday to lenders and regulators asking them to ease the burdens on those affected by the Oct. 1 shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
The senators asked lenders not to initiate or finalize foreclosures and to work with the homeowners to come up with plans like loan modifications if they miss payments.
Heller and Cortez Masto say the families should not have to worry about financial situations that exacerbate the “tremendous stress caused by this senseless tragedy.”
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10 a.m.
A hotel-casino in Reno, Nevada, has canceled a gun show scheduled this weekend in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
The Rocky Mountain Gun Show had been scheduled to run Friday through Sunday at the Grand Sierra Resort.
Resort officials said in a statement that the Reno stop for the event that tours the western United States has been canceled out of respect for the victims of the killings.
Dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured when Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of The Mandalay Bay hotel-casino on Oct. 1.
