By Alyssa Bethencourt
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LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — For years, Channel 13 was told that Levi Hancock — the first officer to breach Stephen Paddock’s suite after the 1 October shooting — never activated his body camera, according to information provided by Metro attorneys in 2018.
We now have an update that suggests otherwise.
Body camera footage from that day has begun circulating online, showing what happened inside room 32135 in the minutes that followed after Officer Hancock turned his camera on.
Paddock had fired more than a thousand rounds onto the Route 91 crowd. The first minutes after were controlled as Hancock moved slowly through the space, not knowing the shooter was already dead. For the next 90 minutes, questions arose about if Paddock acted alone and the decision to breach the room was the right call.
The camera records what was left behind: Rifles and ammunition, tools of a carefully planned attack. Investigators would later count 24 guns inside Paddock’s room.
In 2018, Metro attorneys told Channel 13 this video did not exist because Hancock had not activated his camera when he entered the room, which was accurate. But shortly after breaching, he turned it on, recording for more than an hour.
There are questions as to why the full video is coming out now, which we are working to confirm.
We reached out to LVMPD about this bodycam footage. A spokesperson from LMVPD’s Office of Public Information provided the following statement.
” The body worn camera video from Officer Levi Hancock on 1 October is not new video. LVMPD has never claimed Officer Hancock’s video did not exist. We did state Officer Hancock did not have his BWC activated at the time of the breach on 1 October. Other officers did have their BWC’s activated at that time. And those first videos of the breach were released in May of 2018. Several minutes after Officer Hancock entered the room on 1 October, he realized his body worn camera was not activated. He then turned it on. In the first moments of Officer Hancock’s video, you see him working with another officer looking at evidence. Those same moments are captured on other officers BWC. The allegation that LVMPD hid Officer Hancock’s video from the public is false and misleading.” — Spokesperson from LMVPD’s Office of Public Information
Metro policy requires officers to activate their cameras “when practical and safe.” In this case, the recording began once the responding officer, Hancock, thought the scene was secure.
Channel 13 also reached out to Governor Lombardo, then Sheriff during 1 October, for a comment. His office referred us to Metro.
Tennille Pereira, the director of the Resiliency and Justice Center, was not at the festival that night, but has guided thousands of survivors since. As a lifelong Las Vegas local, she watched this video with us — not as a professional, but as a community member — who still hurts for her hometown. She shared her thoughts with Channel 13 about this newly released footage.
“Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard to imagine that someone did that. That that happened. It brings it back… And it makes it feel fresh and I think it will do that for a lot of people.” — Tennille Pereira, Resiliency and Justice Center director
We recognize the events of 1 October continue to impact our community. If you are in need of support, visit the Resiliency and Justice Center’s website at resiliencyandjustice.org.
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Newly obtained video: Gunman’s room moments after gunfire stops in 2017 mass shooting News Channel 3-12.
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