IFPO Past Chairman Tom M. Conley, CPP, CPO, President & CEO of The Conley Group, Inc. was asked to write an op-ed for Security Magazine on the Las Vegas massacre by Editor-in-Chief Diane Ritchey. Here it is:
BY Tom M. Conley, SecurityMagazine.com
The problem with a major security failure is people die and/or are injured as a result. That occurred about two weeks ago as we watched and heard the horror come to life as the news broke that killer Stephen Paddock (the killer) had opened fire from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on a crowd of concertgoers attending the Route 91 Country Music Festival in Las Vegas. When the shooting was over, the killer was found dead by police in his room on the 32nd floor from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. We have seen numerous press reports that have included official press conferences, witness interviews, and most of all a lot of speculation and diverse “facts” about this incident.
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What we think we know at this point is at least 58 people were killed and more than 498 others were injured as a result of the killer’s roughly 12-minute shooting spree. Other press reports put the death toll at 59 with 527 injured with an 11-minute shooting spree. We have also been told the killer had 17 weapons in his hotel room and thousands of rounds of ammunition with him for those firearms. Police reports have stated the killer had more than 50 pounds of explosives and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in his car, and even more at his homes. Now, about two weeks later, we know little more than we did the day after the shooting. We do not know the killer’s motive. We only know he has been described as a regular everyday guy with no prior criminal history.
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As the news unfolded immediately following this massacre and the reports came out about what reportedly had occurred, I understood that the killer opened fire a few minutes after 10:00 p.m. Las Vegas time and the shooting lasted for about 11 minutes. At about the 11-minute mark, the police arrived at the killer’s hotel door at which time the shooting from the killer’s room stopped. It was reported that SWAT made a tactical entry into the killer’s room some time later where they found the killer dead on the floor. I also understood that the killer had shot a Mandalay Bay security guard in the leg through his door right at or after the killer starting firing down on the crowd. The Mandalay Bay security guard, who was unarmed and not authorized to carry a firearm by the State of Nevada, was identified as “Larry” Jesus Campos, an employee of Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC) and not Mandalay Bay. CSC is a company whose staff wears yellow t-shirts and holds itself out as a company that is the “leader in Crowd Management and Event Security.”
