WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.040 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We are shifting 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:05.459 gears today. Usually we're here to unpack these 00:00:05.459 --> 00:00:08.720 big complex systems, you know, economics, obscure 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:11.140 history, the weird corners of the tech world. 00:00:11.259 --> 00:00:14.179 But today we are heading to a specific coordinate 00:00:14.179 --> 00:00:16.780 on the map that I think everyone recognizes, 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:20.019 even if they wish they didn't. We're going to 00:00:20.019 --> 00:00:22.660 the neon -soaked intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:25.559 and Mandalay Bay Road. It's a location that really 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:29.839 represents a terrifying... pivot point in recent 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:32.640 American history. We're talking about the night 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:35.299 the social contract of public safety was because 00:00:35.299 --> 00:00:37.079 it was just shattered in a way we hadn't really 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:39.100 seen before. Exactly. We're talking about October 00:00:39.100 --> 00:00:43.039 1st, 2017, a Sunday night, the Route 91 Harvest 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:45.020 Festival. Right. You've got the closing act, 00:00:45.119 --> 00:00:47.340 Jason Aldean on stage. You have the lights of 00:00:47.340 --> 00:00:49.140 the strip in the background. It is high energy. 00:00:49.299 --> 00:00:52.380 It's vibrant. And then in the span of just 10 00:00:52.380 --> 00:00:54.759 minutes, it becomes the site of the deadliest 00:00:54.759 --> 00:00:57.100 mass shooting by a lone gunman in U .S. history. 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:00.079 And I think we should be clear about our mission 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:02.299 statement for this deep dive, because this is 00:01:02.299 --> 00:01:04.280 a heavy topic and we aren't here to just, you 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:06.640 know, recite the tragic headline. Not at all. 00:01:06.659 --> 00:01:08.599 We aren't here for the sensationalism. We're 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:10.439 here to do what we do best, which is analyze 00:01:10.439 --> 00:01:13.120 the mechanics. We want to move beyond the breaking 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:16.849 news banners and look at the. The forensic details 00:01:16.849 --> 00:01:18.950 of the preparation, the physics of the attack, 00:01:19.150 --> 00:01:22.150 the chaos of the response, and ultimately the 00:01:22.150 --> 00:01:24.750 baffling void at the center of it all. That is 00:01:24.750 --> 00:01:26.950 the hook, isn't it? That's the thing that still 00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:29.590 haunts investigators. Because usually when we 00:01:29.590 --> 00:01:32.430 do a deep dive, we end with a why. Right. There's 00:01:32.430 --> 00:01:34.329 a conclusion. We wrap it up with a clear conclusion. 00:01:34.549 --> 00:01:39.109 But here. Despite 10 months of the most exhaustive 00:01:39.109 --> 00:01:41.530 investigation in the history of the LVMPD and 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:45.790 the FBI, the why remains a completely blank page. 00:01:46.090 --> 00:01:48.409 It's the motiveless crime on an industrial scale. 00:01:48.549 --> 00:01:50.989 And that is what is so unsettling. We know the 00:01:50.989 --> 00:01:53.569 who, the what, the where, the when, and the how 00:01:53.569 --> 00:01:56.629 in excruciating minute -by -minute detail. We 00:01:56.629 --> 00:01:59.750 have the receipts, quite literally, but the why, 00:01:59.769 --> 00:02:02.250 it simply isn't there. And that forces us to 00:02:02.250 --> 00:02:04.629 ask some very uncomfortable questions about, 00:02:04.670 --> 00:02:06.950 you know, the nature of evil and violence itself. 00:02:07.049 --> 00:02:09.729 So let's unpack this. Let's start with the anomaly 00:02:09.729 --> 00:02:12.370 that is the perpetrator. Because when you think 00:02:12.370 --> 00:02:15.780 of a mass shooter, society... Let's be honest, 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:18.360 the data has kind of given us a stock profile. 00:02:18.740 --> 00:02:21.840 We expect a disaffected youth, maybe someone 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:24.280 who's been radicalized online, someone with a 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:27.319 history of violent outbursts or, you know, a 00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:29.439 manifesto. Right. You look for the Columbine 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:31.620 effect or some kind of political extremism. Stephen 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:34.039 Paddock broke every single one of those molds. 00:02:34.180 --> 00:02:36.539 Completely. We're looking at a 64 -year -old 00:02:36.539 --> 00:02:39.020 white male. He lived in a retirement community 00:02:39.020 --> 00:02:41.360 in Mesquite, Nevada. A retirement community. 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:43.840 He wasn't a fringe dweller. He was a retired 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:46.939 auditor. and a real estate businessman. And a 00:02:46.939 --> 00:02:48.979 wealthy one. Yeah. This wasn't someone acting 00:02:48.979 --> 00:02:52.740 out of like economic desperation. He was a multimillionaire. 00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:54.840 He was what they call a high roller. He was a 00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:56.680 status player. And I think his professional background 00:02:56.680 --> 00:02:59.599 is actually key to understanding the how, even 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:02.520 if we can't get to the why. Okay. He was an auditor. 00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:05.080 Think about what an auditor does. They look for 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:07.819 patterns. They look for loopholes. They are meticulous, 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:11.080 detail -oriented, and they approach systems with 00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:14.539 a critical, almost cold eye. He applied that 00:03:14.539 --> 00:03:17.629 same auditor mindset to his gambling. Let's talk 00:03:17.629 --> 00:03:19.270 about the gambling, because this wasn't just 00:03:19.270 --> 00:03:21.870 a hobby for him. This was a lifestyle. But he 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:25.689 wasn't exactly the James Bond type at the backer 00:03:25.689 --> 00:03:28.050 route table, was he? Oh, far from it. And this 00:03:28.050 --> 00:03:30.729 is a really crucial psychological detail. He 00:03:30.729 --> 00:03:33.689 didn't play social games like craps or blackjack 00:03:33.689 --> 00:03:35.689 where you interact with a dealer and other players. 00:03:35.810 --> 00:03:39.069 No. He played video poker. Exclusively. Which 00:03:39.069 --> 00:03:41.530 is essentially man versus machine. It's man versus 00:03:41.530 --> 00:03:44.669 algorithm. It's a solitary, repetitive, almost 00:03:44.669 --> 00:03:47.729 trance -like state. You sit there for hours just 00:03:47.729 --> 00:03:49.990 hitting buttons, watching the screen. It allows 00:03:49.990 --> 00:03:52.349 you to be in the middle of the casino, surrounded 00:03:52.349 --> 00:03:54.990 by the noise, the energy, the so -called action, 00:03:55.169 --> 00:03:58.090 while remaining completely isolated in your own 00:03:58.090 --> 00:04:01.530 little bubble. It's an antisocial activity, masquerading 00:04:01.530 --> 00:04:05.009 as being out on the town. And despite being antisocial, 00:04:05.150 --> 00:04:08.080 he was known. He was a whale. He got the comps, 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.960 the free penthouses, the gourmet meal. He absolutely 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.960 thrived on that status. He was the guy the casino 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:17.120 hosts fawned over. But, and here's where we start 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:19.139 to see the cracks forming. In the two years leading 00:04:19.139 --> 00:04:23.220 up to 2017, that status was, well, it was eroding. 00:04:23.379 --> 00:04:25.680 The sources mention he was on a massive losing 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:28.839 streak, a really bad one. He had lost a significant 00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:31.879 amount of his wealth for a man whose entire identity 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:33.959 is built on being the big shot who beats the 00:04:33.959 --> 00:04:36.620 house. That is a psychic injury. A huge one. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:38.959 Some forensic psychologists point to this theory 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:42.879 of the eroding narcissist. He was an aging man. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:45.019 He was losing his money. His girlfriend described 00:04:45.019 --> 00:04:48.560 him as becoming distant and their intimacy had 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:50.879 ceased. He was watching his power just slip away. 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:54.120 So the theory is if I can't command respect with 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:55.959 my money anymore, I will command the world's 00:04:55.959 --> 00:04:58.089 attention with my. violence. That's the speculation. 00:04:58.370 --> 00:05:00.810 It's a way to reclaim control. You know, I will 00:05:00.810 --> 00:05:03.209 decide when and how the story ends and everyone 00:05:03.209 --> 00:05:05.610 is going to look at me. Right. But again, plenty 00:05:05.610 --> 00:05:07.649 of narcissists go broke without firing into a 00:05:07.649 --> 00:05:09.930 crowd. There's another layer here, a biological 00:05:09.930 --> 00:05:14.389 one that is just, yeah, it's wild. You're talking 00:05:14.389 --> 00:05:16.230 about his father. This is one of those details 00:05:16.230 --> 00:05:18.230 that if you wrote it in a movie script, the producers 00:05:18.230 --> 00:05:21.069 would say that's too unbelievable. Cut it. Benjamin 00:05:21.069 --> 00:05:24.279 Bing Paddock. Steven's father wasn't just a bad 00:05:24.279 --> 00:05:27.139 dad. He was on the FBI's most wanted list from 00:05:27.139 --> 00:05:31.079 1969 to 1977. On the most wanted list for what? 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:34.160 He was a bank robber. A bank robber. Wow. Yes. 00:05:34.199 --> 00:05:37.480 And the FBI poster for him described him as being 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:40.540 diagnosed as psychopathic and having suicidal 00:05:40.540 --> 00:05:44.420 tendencies. So while Steven Paddock had no criminal 00:05:44.420 --> 00:05:46.699 record himself, literally nothing more than traffic 00:05:46.699 --> 00:05:49.279 citations, he is carrying this genetic legacy. 00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:51.500 So he's the son of a diagnosed psychopath. Who 00:05:51.500 --> 00:05:52.980 made a living. Living through high stakes crime. 00:05:53.160 --> 00:05:55.959 Yeah. It brings up that age old nature versus 00:05:55.959 --> 00:05:59.180 nurture debate, doesn't it? You have the potential 00:05:59.180 --> 00:06:01.920 gene of the bank robber mixed with the discipline 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:04.800 of the auditor. A terrifying combination. The 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:07.120 impulse for destruction met with the capability 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:10.019 for meticulous cold planning. And that is what 00:06:10.019 --> 00:06:12.560 we need to look at next. The planning. Because 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.360 this was not a snap decision. He didn't just 00:06:14.360 --> 00:06:16.459 wake up on October 1st and decide to do this. 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:18.660 No, this was a project. This was months, if not 00:06:18.660 --> 00:06:21.730 longer, in the making. The timeline of premeditation 00:06:21.730 --> 00:06:25.689 goes back at least to May of 2017. He was scouting. 00:06:25.689 --> 00:06:29.110 He researched large venues in Boston. He specifically 00:06:29.110 --> 00:06:32.949 looked at Fenway Park. Fenway Park. Yes. Then 00:06:32.949 --> 00:06:36.009 in August 2017, he actually booked a room at 00:06:36.009 --> 00:06:39.269 the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago. What's happening 00:06:39.269 --> 00:06:42.209 in Chicago then? Lollapalooza, the massive music 00:06:42.209 --> 00:06:44.910 festival in Grant Park. He booked a room overlooking 00:06:44.910 --> 00:06:47.129 the crowd. Did he check in? He never checked 00:06:47.129 --> 00:06:49.449 in, but the intent was there. He was shopping 00:06:49.449 --> 00:06:51.990 for a venue. He was looking for a very specific 00:06:51.990 --> 00:06:55.290 geometry, a high -rise vantage point overlooking 00:06:55.290 --> 00:06:58.009 a dense, trapped crowd. He was sight -surveying 00:06:58.009 --> 00:07:00.149 mass murder. That's exactly what he was doing. 00:07:00.230 --> 00:07:02.569 And he even did a dry run right there in Las 00:07:02.569 --> 00:07:05.230 Vegas. Just days before the Route 91 attack, 00:07:05.410 --> 00:07:07.750 he rented a condo at the Ogden, which is a high 00:07:07.750 --> 00:07:10.470 -rise in downtown Las Vegas. During the Life 00:07:10.470 --> 00:07:12.759 is Beautiful Festival. Another open air music 00:07:12.759 --> 00:07:15.240 festival. He was there. He was likely watching 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:17.680 the security rotations, watching how the crowd 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:20.480 moved, testing the wind angles. He was doing 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:23.160 his homework. He was. And his Internet search 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:26.339 history confirms this cold, calculated curiosity. 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.939 It wasn't political ranting or manifestos. It 00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:32.800 was physics. He was searching for a ballistics 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:35.360 chart 308. He was searching for SWAT weapons. 00:07:35.399 --> 00:07:39.139 He searched. Do police use explosives? He wanted 00:07:39.139 --> 00:07:41.120 to know exactly what the opposition would bring 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:43.300 to the fight. He was calculating engagement distances. 00:07:43.699 --> 00:07:45.899 It was a logistical problem he was trying to 00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:48.819 solve. Oh, so let's move to the setup at Mandalay 00:07:48.819 --> 00:07:51.379 Bay because this is where the auditor really 00:07:51.379 --> 00:07:54.959 shines in the most horrifying way possible. He 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:58.079 checks in on September 25th. That is nearly a 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:00.240 week before the shooting. And notice how he gets 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:04.079 the room. He demands a specific suite, room 32135, 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:06.339 as a complimentary perk because of his gambling 00:08:06.339 --> 00:08:08.819 status. Right, because he's a whale. It's a corner 00:08:08.819 --> 00:08:11.339 suite with a panoramic view of the festival grounds. 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:14.259 But that wasn't enough for him. Four days later, 00:08:14.300 --> 00:08:17.800 he books the connecting room, 32134. Why the 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:19.639 second room? What did they give him? It gave 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:22.800 him a second window, a second firing angle. It 00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:24.759 allowed him to triangulate the festival grounds 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:26.899 and cover areas that might have been blind spots 00:08:26.899 --> 00:08:28.899 from the first room. It was purely tactical. 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:31.600 And then begins to load in. This is the part 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:33.159 that just frustrates people so much when they 00:08:33.159 --> 00:08:35.899 hear it. Yeah. How do you get an arsenal of weapons 00:08:35.899 --> 00:08:39.019 into a high -end hotel room without raising a 00:08:39.019 --> 00:08:42.330 single eyebrow? You use the front door. And you 00:08:42.330 --> 00:08:44.929 use the staff. Over the course of his stay, he 00:08:44.929 --> 00:08:47.450 brought in more than 20 suitcases. 20. Let's 00:08:47.450 --> 00:08:49.769 break that down because the volume is just staggering. 00:08:50.049 --> 00:08:52.970 Okay. So on September 25th, he brings in five 00:08:52.970 --> 00:08:58.009 suitcases. Five. Okay. On the 26th, seven suitcases. 00:08:58.029 --> 00:09:00.909 Seven more. On the 28th, another two. On the 00:09:00.909 --> 00:09:04.580 30th, six more. And on October 1st, the day of 00:09:04.580 --> 00:09:06.440 the shooting, two more. And he had the bellman 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:08.220 help him with these. He did, and this is social 00:09:08.220 --> 00:09:10.659 engineering at its finest. To the bellman, he's 00:09:10.659 --> 00:09:12.539 just a wealthy guy moving in for a long stay. 00:09:12.940 --> 00:09:16.080 In Vegas, it is not unusual for a whale to have 00:09:16.080 --> 00:09:18.700 20 bags. Right. You just assume it's cash or 00:09:18.700 --> 00:09:20.860 something. Maybe it's cash. Maybe it's special 00:09:20.860 --> 00:09:23.120 bedding. Maybe it's supplies for a month -long 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:25.419 party. You don't ask questions of the guy tipping 00:09:25.419 --> 00:09:28.659 you big money. He hid in plain sight, protected 00:09:28.659 --> 00:09:31.419 by his privilege as a high roller. He interacted 00:09:31.419 --> 00:09:34.039 with the hotel staff more than 10 times. They 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:36.559 all described him as normal. He was pleasant. 00:09:36.779 --> 00:09:39.600 He was tipping. He was gambling at night and 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:42.000 moving guns by day. And once everything was in 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.549 the room. He goes into lockdown mode. September 00:09:45.549 --> 00:09:48.549 30th, the Do Not Disturb signs go up on both 00:09:48.549 --> 00:09:52.129 doors, and he turns the room into a fortress. 00:09:52.429 --> 00:09:54.970 He installed his own surveillance system. He 00:09:54.970 --> 00:09:57.429 literally drilled a hole in the peephole of the 00:09:57.429 --> 00:10:00.090 main door and installed a camera. Wow. But more 00:10:00.090 --> 00:10:02.929 brazenly, he took a room service cart, you know, 00:10:02.970 --> 00:10:05.450 a food trolley, and he put a camera on it. He 00:10:05.450 --> 00:10:07.190 just left a room service cart in the middle of 00:10:07.190 --> 00:10:09.669 the hallway. Yes. He positioned it specifically 00:10:09.669 --> 00:10:11.990 to look down the hallway toward the elevators. 00:10:12.149 --> 00:10:15.370 He created his own early warning system. He wanted 00:10:15.370 --> 00:10:17.169 to see the police coming before they ever got 00:10:17.169 --> 00:10:19.669 to his door. The sources say these cameras weren't 00:10:19.669 --> 00:10:21.970 recording though, right? No, they were live feed 00:10:21.970 --> 00:10:24.429 only. He wasn't interested in leaving a tape 00:10:24.429 --> 00:10:27.110 for history. He was interested in tactical awareness 00:10:27.110 --> 00:10:29.750 in the moment. He was watching the feed on a 00:10:29.750 --> 00:10:33.700 tablet inside the room. It is so cold. So methodical. 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:36.019 Let's talk about what was inside those suitcases. 00:10:36.139 --> 00:10:37.840 Because when the police finally breached that 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:40.320 room, the inventory list looked like something 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:43.379 out of a war movie. They found 24 firearms in 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:45.480 the suite. But it wasn't just a random collection 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:48.139 of guns. It was a specific tool set for a specific 00:10:48.139 --> 00:10:50.960 task. What do you mean by that? How so? Well, 00:10:50.980 --> 00:10:54.460 he had 14 AR -15 style rifles. These fire the 00:10:54.460 --> 00:10:57.379 .223 caliber round. It's a lighter, faster bullet, 00:10:57.500 --> 00:11:00.620 good for volume of fire. But he also had eight 00:11:00.620 --> 00:11:03.080 AR -10 style rifles. Okay, for listeners who 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:04.620 aren't gun experts, what is the difference? Why 00:11:04.620 --> 00:11:07.559 mix and match like that? The AR -10 fires a .38 00:11:07.559 --> 00:11:10.740 caliber round. That is a significantly heavier, 00:11:10.899 --> 00:11:13.580 more powerful bullet. It has much better range 00:11:13.580 --> 00:11:16.279 and much better penetration power. He had these 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.000 AR -10s equipped with high -power scopes and 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.200 bipods. So those were his precision instruments. 00:11:21.639 --> 00:11:24.519 Exactly. He intended to use those to reach out 00:11:24.519 --> 00:11:27.379 and touch targets that were further away or perhaps 00:11:27.379 --> 00:11:29.639 to punch through barriers like vehicles or stage 00:11:29.639 --> 00:11:32.340 equipment. But the AR -15s? Yeah. Those were 00:11:32.340 --> 00:11:34.960 for the volume, for the crowd. Those were for 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:37.279 the bump stocks. And this is the piece of technology 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:40.200 that really defined this tragedy. We heard so 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:42.879 much about bump stocks in the news after this, 00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:44.799 but I want to make sure we really understand 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:47.659 the mechanics. How does it work? Okay, so a standard 00:11:47.659 --> 00:11:50.740 semi -automatic rifle fires one round for every 00:11:50.740 --> 00:11:53.820 single pull of the trigger. Bang, bang. Bang. 00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:57.100 To fire fast, you have to have a very fast finger. 00:11:57.240 --> 00:12:00.059 Right. A bump stock replaces the standard butt 00:12:00.059 --> 00:12:02.299 stock of the rifle, the part that rests against 00:12:02.299 --> 00:12:04.820 your shoulder. It's designed to be loose to allow 00:12:04.820 --> 00:12:07.000 the rest of the gun to slide back and forth freely 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:09.399 on that stock. So it harnesses the recoil, the 00:12:09.399 --> 00:12:11.759 kick from the gun. Exactly. When you fire, the 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:14.659 recoil pushes the gun back into the stock. The 00:12:14.659 --> 00:12:17.039 bump stock then uses that energy to bounce the 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:19.580 gun forward again, slamming the trigger back 00:12:19.580 --> 00:12:22.080 against your stationary finger. It creates a 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:25.240 mechanical loop. So instead of bang, it's a continuous 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:28.139 fire. It's bird. We are talking about a rate 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:30.840 of fire of roughly nine rounds per second. Nine 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:33.309 a second. which is, for all intents and purposes, 00:12:33.629 --> 00:12:36.370 indistinguishable from a fully automatic machine 00:12:36.370 --> 00:12:39.470 gun. And he had a 100 -round high -capacity magazine, 00:12:39.529 --> 00:12:41.750 so he could maintain that volume of fire for 00:12:41.750 --> 00:12:44.870 10, even 15 seconds at a time before having to 00:12:44.870 --> 00:12:47.210 reload. It was a force multiplier. It allowed 00:12:47.210 --> 00:12:50.970 one man to rain down the firepower of an entire 00:12:50.970 --> 00:12:53.990 squad of soldiers. Absolutely. And the manufacturers 00:12:53.990 --> 00:12:56.950 were all top -tier, Colt, Daniel Defense, FN 00:12:56.950 --> 00:12:59.769 Herstal. He bought the best gear money could 00:12:59.769 --> 00:13:02.389 buy. And it wasn't just guns, was it? He had 00:13:02.389 --> 00:13:04.789 plans for explosives, too. In the valet garage 00:13:04.789 --> 00:13:07.370 in his Hyundai Tucson, police found a terrifying 00:13:07.370 --> 00:13:10.850 stash. He had ammonium nitrate. That's the fertilizer 00:13:10.850 --> 00:13:13.820 used in bomb making. Like in Oklahoma City. It's 00:13:13.820 --> 00:13:16.360 the primary component of heavy IEDs, yes. He 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:19.000 also had 50 pounds of Tannerite, which is a binary 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:21.259 explosive used for target practice, but in that 00:13:21.259 --> 00:13:23.080 quantity. What was the plan there? To drop the 00:13:23.080 --> 00:13:24.940 hotel? I mean, what do you do with that? It's 00:13:24.940 --> 00:13:27.259 unlikely that amount would bring down a steel 00:13:27.259 --> 00:13:30.360 frame building like Mandalay Bay, but a car bomb 00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:32.740 in the parking structure. It would have caused 00:13:32.740 --> 00:13:35.679 massive structural damage, fire, and absolute 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.159 panic. It would have drawn first responders away 00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:41.350 from the shooting. It seems he wanted chaos on 00:13:41.350 --> 00:13:43.289 every level. He also tried to get tracer rounds, 00:13:43.409 --> 00:13:45.190 right? He did. He tried to buy them from a dealer 00:13:45.190 --> 00:13:46.830 who was out of stock, so he bought them from 00:13:46.830 --> 00:13:49.830 a private seller at a gun show. Tracer rounds 00:13:49.830 --> 00:13:52.490 burn brightly when fired, so they let you see 00:13:52.490 --> 00:13:55.049 the path of the bullet in the dark. So he could 00:13:55.049 --> 00:13:57.309 walk his fire onto the target better at night. 00:13:57.450 --> 00:14:01.269 Exactly. And then he left a note, a simple handwritten 00:14:01.269 --> 00:14:04.629 note on the nightstand. A manifesto. A suicide 00:14:04.629 --> 00:14:09.720 note. No. Math. It was a slip of paper with calculations 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:12.580 on it, calculations for the distance, the wind 00:14:12.580 --> 00:14:14.879 drift, and the bullet drop from the 32nd floor 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:17.480 down to the concert grounds. He had worked out 00:14:17.480 --> 00:14:19.899 the physics equation. To him, the people down 00:14:19.899 --> 00:14:22.120 there weren't humans. There were variables in 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:24.980 a ballistics problem. That is absolutely chilling. 00:14:25.139 --> 00:14:28.960 Just pure calculation. Okay, let's move to the 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:33.210 night of October 1st. The timeline. Because there 00:14:33.210 --> 00:14:35.509 is a prelude to the mass shooting that is incredibly 00:14:35.509 --> 00:14:38.269 important and often misunderstood. The security 00:14:38.269 --> 00:14:41.509 guard incident. Jesus Campos. He is the unsung 00:14:41.509 --> 00:14:44.190 hero and the first victim of that night. And 00:14:44.190 --> 00:14:46.049 he wasn't even there for Paddock, right? This 00:14:46.049 --> 00:14:49.350 is a coincidence. A complete coincidence. He 00:14:49.350 --> 00:14:52.669 was responding to an open door alarm on the 32nd 00:14:52.669 --> 00:14:55.090 floor. But when he tried to enter the hallway 00:14:55.090 --> 00:14:57.899 from the stairwell. The door wouldn't open. Paddock 00:14:57.899 --> 00:15:00.620 had barricaded it. He had screwed an L -shaped 00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:02.960 metal bracket into the doorframe from the inside. 00:15:03.139 --> 00:15:05.440 He had secured his flank. He didn't want anyone 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:07.960 sneaking up on him from the stairs. So Campos 00:15:07.960 --> 00:15:09.960 had to go to another floor, take the elevator, 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:12.240 and come into the 32nd floor hallway from the 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:14.100 other side. And as he's walking down the hall. 00:15:14.259 --> 00:15:16.799 He hears drilling. This is around 10 .00 p .m. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:19.100 It was likely Paddock securing that bracket or 00:15:19.100 --> 00:15:21.440 doing some kind of final prep. But as Campos 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:25.830 approaches room 32135, Paddock spots him. Remember 00:15:25.830 --> 00:15:27.750 the cart camera? He sees him coming on his tablet. 00:15:27.909 --> 00:15:30.409 And he fires. He doesn't open the door. He fires 00:15:30.409 --> 00:15:32.789 35 rounds right through the wood of the hotel 00:15:32.789 --> 00:15:35.289 room door into the hallway. And Campos gets hit. 00:15:35.389 --> 00:15:38.269 He takes a round to the leg. This is at 10 .05 00:15:38.269 --> 00:15:41.669 p .m. He retreats to an alcove and radios for 00:15:41.669 --> 00:15:44.190 help. He actually runs into a maintenance worker, 00:15:44.409 --> 00:15:46.950 Stephen Shuck, who had come up to fix the jammed 00:15:46.950 --> 00:15:50.529 door. Campos saves Shuck's life, screaming at 00:15:50.529 --> 00:15:52.830 him to take cover. Now, there was a lot of confusion 00:15:52.830 --> 00:15:55.509 about the timeline here. For a while, the report 00:15:55.509 --> 00:15:58.110 said there was a six -minute gap between Campos 00:15:58.110 --> 00:16:00.750 getting shot and the attack on the crowd starting. 00:16:00.950 --> 00:16:03.250 That was the timeline controversy, people asked. 00:16:03.409 --> 00:16:06.350 If he shot a guard at 10 .05, why didn't police 00:16:06.350 --> 00:16:08.490 stop him before he started shooting at the crowd 00:16:08.490 --> 00:16:10.789 six minutes later? But the police eventually 00:16:10.789 --> 00:16:13.230 clarified this with digital forensics. There 00:16:13.230 --> 00:16:16.120 was no gap. So what happened? Paddock shot Campos, 00:16:16.179 --> 00:16:18.440 realized his timeline was blown. He had been 00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:20.740 discovered and he immediately turned his attention 00:16:20.740 --> 00:16:23.379 to the windows. He uses a hammer. He smashes 00:16:23.379 --> 00:16:26.639 two windows, one in the main suite, 32 -135, 00:16:26.700 --> 00:16:30.019 and one in the connecting room, 32 -134. And 00:16:30.019 --> 00:16:32.259 we have to appreciate the physics here. These 00:16:32.259 --> 00:16:35.440 are heavy, hurricane -proof glass panes. Breaking 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:37.740 them requires violent force, and once they are 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:40.440 gone, the pressure differential sucks air out 00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:42.740 of the room. It creates a wind tunnel. And then 00:16:42.740 --> 00:16:46.240 he looks down, 10 .05 p .m. Jason Aldean is closing 00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:50.769 the show. 22 ,000 people. The distance is 490 00:16:50.769 --> 00:16:53.610 yards. That's about five football fields. That 00:16:53.610 --> 00:16:55.929 sounds really far. For a pistol, it's an impossible 00:16:55.929 --> 00:16:59.230 shot. For a rifle with a scope and a bipod firing 00:16:59.230 --> 00:17:02.029 down into a crowd that dense, it is what marksmen 00:17:02.029 --> 00:17:04.890 call a target -rich environment. He didn't have 00:17:04.890 --> 00:17:06.750 to aim at specific people. He just had to point 00:17:06.750 --> 00:17:08.910 at the mask. The shooting starts. Yeah. And the 00:17:08.910 --> 00:17:11.150 crowd reaction. It breaks your heart to hear 00:17:11.150 --> 00:17:13.970 the audio. They cheer. It's that normalcy bias 00:17:13.970 --> 00:17:16.250 we talked about. We are wired to reject danger. 00:17:16.329 --> 00:17:18.049 People thought it was fireworks. It was the finale 00:17:18.049 --> 00:17:19.890 of the festival. They expected pyrotechnics. 00:17:19.990 --> 00:17:22.029 Some thought it was a blown speaker. But then 00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:24.710 the screaming starts. Paddock begins using the 00:17:24.710 --> 00:17:28.130 bump stocks. Bursts of 80 to 100 rounds at a 00:17:28.130 --> 00:17:31.630 time. Burt. A pause to change magazines? Burt. 00:17:31.829 --> 00:17:34.029 It was just relentless. And the venue itself 00:17:34.029 --> 00:17:36.750 turned into a trap. It became what tactical experts 00:17:36.750 --> 00:17:40.130 call a kill box. The festival was surrounded 00:17:40.130 --> 00:17:42.930 by high chain link fences. Right. These were 00:17:42.930 --> 00:17:45.690 designed for revenue protection to keep people 00:17:45.690 --> 00:17:48.150 without tickets out. But when the shooting started. 00:17:48.650 --> 00:17:51.289 Those fences became walls. They kept the people 00:17:51.289 --> 00:17:53.190 in. People were crushed against them, trying 00:17:53.190 --> 00:17:55.710 to get out. It created a horrific bottleneck. 00:17:55.710 --> 00:17:58.450 The exits were too few and too narrow for a stampede 00:17:58.450 --> 00:18:01.609 of 22 ,000 terrified people. People were climbing 00:18:01.609 --> 00:18:03.789 fences, tearing them down, getting trampled. 00:18:03.849 --> 00:18:06.410 And all the while, bullets are just raining down 00:18:06.410 --> 00:18:08.329 from a high angle. And he wasn't just shooting 00:18:08.329 --> 00:18:11.720 at the people. He had another... Even more ambitious 00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:15.140 target, the airport. This is a detail that really 00:18:15.140 --> 00:18:17.720 shows the scale of his intent. He fired at the 00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:20.339 jet fuel tanks at McCarran International Airport, 00:18:20.579 --> 00:18:22.039 which is right next to the festival grounds, 00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:24.019 about 2 ,000 feet away. Was he trying to blow 00:18:24.019 --> 00:18:27.720 up the airport? He hit the tanks twice. One bullet 00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:30.599 actually penetrated the steel shell of one of 00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:33.680 the tanks. But it didn't explode. Why not? Chemistry. 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:36.599 Hollywood has taught us that if you shoot a gas 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:40.359 tank, it goes boom. But jet fuel is basically 00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:44.259 kerosene. It's very stable. To ignite, it needs 00:18:44.259 --> 00:18:47.000 to be vaporized and mixed with oxygen in a very 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:50.400 specific ratio. A bullet passing through liquid 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:53.619 fuel just causes a leak. It doesn't cause a detonation. 00:18:53.859 --> 00:18:57.480 But the intent was clearly to create a massive 00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:00.619 fireball to distract and destroy. Down on the 00:19:00.619 --> 00:19:02.380 ground, the confusion must have been absolute. 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:05.599 It was the fog of war. The acoustics of the strip 00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:08.000 are a nightmare. You have these tall glass canyons, 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.140 the Luxor, the Excalibur, Mandalay Bay. The sound 00:19:11.140 --> 00:19:13.119 of the gunshots was bouncing off everything. 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:14.619 So they didn't know where it was coming from? 00:19:14.819 --> 00:19:16.680 No. People thought shots were coming from the 00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:18.259 Luxor. People thought there were shooters on 00:19:18.259 --> 00:19:20.500 the ground. Reports came in of shots at Gate 00:19:20.500 --> 00:19:22.640 4. The police were getting conflicting information 00:19:22.640 --> 00:19:25.140 from all sides. So it took them a while to even 00:19:25.140 --> 00:19:27.859 figure out where he was. Eventually, police and 00:19:27.859 --> 00:19:30.460 security spotted the muzzle flashes from the 00:19:30.460 --> 00:19:32.279 middle of the northern side of Mandalay Bay. 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:35.160 The strobe light of the muzzle flash in the dark 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:38.279 window finally gave him away. So the police mobilize. 00:19:38.539 --> 00:19:41.519 10 .1 p .m. Officers are already in the hotel 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:44.339 on other floors. Officers on the 31st floor, 00:19:44.500 --> 00:19:46.920 one floor below, could actually hear the shell 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:49.099 casings hitting the floor above them. They said 00:19:49.099 --> 00:19:52.799 it sounded like rain. Wow. By 10 .17 p .m., officers 00:19:52.799 --> 00:19:55.680 reach the 32nd floor. They find the wounded Jesus 00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:59.480 Campos. But by 10 .17... The shooting has already 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:02.859 stopped. The gunfire ceased at 10 .15 p .m. The 00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:05.599 entire attack lasted exactly 10 minutes. Over 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:08.059 1 ,000 rounds fired. But when the police arrive 00:20:08.059 --> 00:20:10.059 at the door, it is silent. And this leads to 00:20:10.059 --> 00:20:11.980 the breach delay. There was over an hour from 00:20:11.980 --> 00:20:15.400 10 .17 to 11 .20 where officers were outside 00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:18.539 the room but didn't go in. Why? Why the wait? 00:20:18.940 --> 00:20:20.779 This is a matter of police doctrine, but it's 00:20:20.779 --> 00:20:22.980 hard for the public to accept. When a suspect 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:25.220 is actively shooting, the protocol is active 00:20:25.220 --> 00:20:27.799 shooter response. You breach immediately, you 00:20:27.799 --> 00:20:30.019 engage, you stop the killing, even if it means 00:20:30.019 --> 00:20:32.509 taking risks. Right. Go, go, go. But the moment 00:20:32.509 --> 00:20:35.130 a shooting stops, the classification changes 00:20:35.130 --> 00:20:37.890 to barricaded subject. So they slow everything 00:20:37.890 --> 00:20:40.490 down. Exactly. If he's not killing anyone right 00:20:40.490 --> 00:20:42.849 now, you don't rush in. You don't know if the 00:20:42.849 --> 00:20:45.109 door is rigged with explosives, which was a valid 00:20:45.109 --> 00:20:46.930 fear given the cameras and the drilling he was 00:20:46.930 --> 00:20:49.630 doing. You don't know if he has hostages. So 00:20:49.630 --> 00:20:51.990 they held the line. They evacuated the other 00:20:51.990 --> 00:20:54.509 guests on the floor. They waited for the SWAT 00:20:54.509 --> 00:20:57.789 team with the proper breach gear. And at 11 .20 00:20:57.789 --> 00:21:01.019 p .m. SWAT places an explosive charge on the 00:21:01.019 --> 00:21:04.819 door. They blow it. They enter room 32135. And 00:21:04.819 --> 00:21:07.319 what did they find? Paddock was dead. He had 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:09.720 committed suicide with a revolver. Shot himself 00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:11.759 in the mouth. There was an accidental discharge 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:13.259 during the breach, wasn't there? I read that. 00:21:13.420 --> 00:21:16.099 Yes. In the extreme tension of the entry, an 00:21:16.099 --> 00:21:18.400 officer's weapon fired a three -round burst. 00:21:18.660 --> 00:21:21.319 It hit a cabinet. Nobody was hurt, but it just 00:21:21.319 --> 00:21:23.339 shows how incredibly high the adrenaline was 00:21:23.339 --> 00:21:25.819 in that moment. So the shooter is dead. The threat 00:21:25.819 --> 00:21:28.450 is over. But the crisis has just migrated down 00:21:28.450 --> 00:21:30.470 the street to the hospitals. The casualty count 00:21:30.470 --> 00:21:34.009 is just overwhelming. The numbers are staggering. 00:21:34.369 --> 00:21:37.410 58 people died that night. Two more died later 00:21:37.410 --> 00:21:40.349 from complications of their wounds. One in 2019 00:21:40.349 --> 00:21:43.109 and one in 2020, bringing the total death toll 00:21:43.109 --> 00:21:46.529 to 60. 60 people. And they're injured. 413 people 00:21:46.529 --> 00:21:49.390 suffered gunshot or shrapnel wounds. But the 00:21:49.390 --> 00:21:53.000 total number of injured was 867. That includes 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:55.420 people who were trampled, people who broke ankles 00:21:55.420 --> 00:21:58.220 jumping fences, people who cut themselves on 00:21:58.220 --> 00:22:00.380 the barriers. The hospitals must have been a 00:22:00.380 --> 00:22:02.700 complete war zone. They were pushed beyond the 00:22:02.700 --> 00:22:04.599 breaking point. And there was a critical failure 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:07.220 in the system here. University Medical Center, 00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:10.119 or UMC, is the level I trauma center in Vegas. 00:22:10.359 --> 00:22:12.380 It is the place you want to be if you have a 00:22:12.380 --> 00:22:14.079 gunshot wound. It's the best equipped. Right. 00:22:14.339 --> 00:22:16.359 But about an hour into the crisis, emergency 00:22:16.359 --> 00:22:19.279 services were told UMC was full. Was it actually 00:22:19.279 --> 00:22:21.849 full? It wasn't. They still had capacity. But 00:22:21.849 --> 00:22:24.130 in the chaos, erroneous information went out. 00:22:24.210 --> 00:22:26.910 So ambulances started diverting patients to Sunrise 00:22:26.910 --> 00:22:29.009 Hospital, which is a Level 2 center. And then 00:22:29.009 --> 00:22:32.470 Sunrise just got crushed. They received 199 patients. 00:22:32.769 --> 00:22:35.450 150 of them arrived within a 40 -minute window. 00:22:35.710 --> 00:22:39.509 150 in 40 minutes. Imagine that. A patient every 00:22:39.509 --> 00:22:42.509 15 seconds. Victims were being piled in the back 00:22:42.509 --> 00:22:45.410 of pickup trucks, police cars, Ubers. The parking 00:22:45.410 --> 00:22:47.990 lot became a triage center. Doctors were treating 00:22:47.990 --> 00:22:50.089 people on the floor of the lobby. It was absolute 00:22:50.089 --> 00:22:52.990 chaos. There was also the blood donation paradox. 00:22:53.799 --> 00:22:55.940 I remember seeing the news the next day, these 00:22:55.940 --> 00:22:58.460 images of lines for blocks of people wanting 00:22:58.460 --> 00:23:01.059 to give blood. It is a beautiful human instinct, 00:23:01.180 --> 00:23:03.220 isn't it? When we feel helpless, we want to give. 00:23:03.380 --> 00:23:06.680 Blood donations in Vegas went up 53%. But, and 00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:09.140 this is the paradox, 15 % of that blood went 00:23:09.140 --> 00:23:11.380 unused and had to be thrown out. Why? Why would 00:23:11.380 --> 00:23:13.700 that happen? Because blood has a shelf life. 00:23:14.259 --> 00:23:16.660 And in a mass casualty event, you need the blood 00:23:16.660 --> 00:23:19.019 now, which comes from the existing supply on 00:23:19.019 --> 00:23:21.380 the shelves. By the time you bleed a new donor, 00:23:21.539 --> 00:23:24.769 test the blood, process it, the immediate crisis 00:23:24.769 --> 00:23:27.210 is over. So it creates this glut in the system. 00:23:27.329 --> 00:23:29.869 A glut that the system can't use. It really raises 00:23:29.869 --> 00:23:32.109 questions about how we manage that public desire 00:23:32.109 --> 00:23:34.970 to help without clogging the system. Amidst all 00:23:34.970 --> 00:23:37.210 this horror, though, we have to talk about the 00:23:37.210 --> 00:23:40.390 heroism. Because in that kill box, people didn't 00:23:40.390 --> 00:23:43.589 just run. They stayed. They helped. The impulse 00:23:43.589 --> 00:23:46.130 to protect was just as strong as the impulse 00:23:46.130 --> 00:23:49.740 to destroy. Take Matthew Kobos. He was a young 00:23:49.740 --> 00:23:52.279 U .S. Army soldier. There's a famous photo of 00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:53.619 him. You've probably seen it. Yes, I know the 00:23:53.619 --> 00:23:56.279 one. He is lying on top of a young blonde woman, 00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.460 shielding her entire body with his own, while 00:23:59.460 --> 00:24:01.880 bullets are literally kicking up the dirt around 00:24:01.880 --> 00:24:04.160 them. He didn't know her. He just covered her. 00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:07.440 And then he ran back into the danger zone to 00:24:07.440 --> 00:24:09.940 apply tourniquets to other people. And Jonathan 00:24:09.940 --> 00:24:12.769 Smith. They call him the angel. He was there 00:24:12.769 --> 00:24:15.450 for his brother's 43rd birthday. When the shooting 00:24:15.450 --> 00:24:17.809 started, he grabbed his family, but then he just 00:24:17.809 --> 00:24:19.730 kept grabbing strangers. He was screaming, active 00:24:19.730 --> 00:24:22.970 shooter, get down. He formed a human chain, dragging 00:24:22.970 --> 00:24:25.430 people toward a row of parked cars for cover. 00:24:25.609 --> 00:24:28.150 He saved dozens of lives. Dozens. Before he took 00:24:28.150 --> 00:24:30.670 a bullet in the neck himself, he survived, but 00:24:30.670 --> 00:24:33.910 he saved so many. And Britney Spears. She was 00:24:33.910 --> 00:24:37.309 a civilian. A civilian. An EMT from UCLA who 00:24:37.309 --> 00:24:39.789 was there just to enjoy the music. She didn't 00:24:39.789 --> 00:24:42.180 flee. She started setting up a triage station 00:24:42.180 --> 00:24:44.220 inside the venue while the shooter was still 00:24:44.220 --> 00:24:47.019 active. She was plugging bullet holes and directing 00:24:47.019 --> 00:24:50.579 care. She was the only civilian medical professional 00:24:50.579 --> 00:24:52.819 to receive a medal of courage from the police. 00:24:53.059 --> 00:24:55.460 There is a really tragic connection that came 00:24:55.460 --> 00:24:58.470 up in the research, though. A sort of coda to 00:24:58.470 --> 00:25:02.009 the survivor stories that feels almost cruel. 00:25:02.190 --> 00:25:04.670 The Thousand Oaks shooting. This is a gut punch. 00:25:04.990 --> 00:25:08.289 A year later, in November 2018, a gunman walked 00:25:08.289 --> 00:25:10.529 into the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand 00:25:10.529 --> 00:25:12.750 Oaks, California. It's a country western bar. 00:25:12.950 --> 00:25:15.150 And who's there? A lot of the Vegas survivors, 00:25:15.410 --> 00:25:18.180 right? A huge number of them. That bar was their 00:25:18.180 --> 00:25:20.259 community hub, their safe space where they went 00:25:20.259 --> 00:25:22.559 to heal together. Survivors of the Las Vegas 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:24.480 massacre found themselves in the middle of another 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:27.559 mass shooting just 12 months later. And one of 00:25:27.559 --> 00:25:29.619 them didn't make it out. Telemachus Orfanos. 00:25:29.859 --> 00:25:32.519 He survived the Vegas shooting. He came home 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:35.220 and he was killed in Thousand Oaks. His mother's 00:25:35.220 --> 00:25:38.000 interview afterwards was, it was just searing. 00:25:38.099 --> 00:25:40.200 She said, I don't want prayers. I want gun control. 00:25:40.819 --> 00:25:43.039 It really highlighted that for these survivors, 00:25:43.420 --> 00:25:46.769 nowhere felt safe anymore. You survive the anomaly, 00:25:46.990 --> 00:25:49.789 only to be caught in the pattern. Let's zoom 00:25:49.789 --> 00:25:52.289 out to the aftermath. Because as soon as the 00:25:52.289 --> 00:25:54.829 shooting stopped, a different kind of chaos started. 00:25:55.109 --> 00:25:57.630 The information war. This was really the first 00:25:57.630 --> 00:26:00.250 major mass casualty event where we saw the total 00:26:00.250 --> 00:26:03.150 failure of the modern algorithmic internet. Explain 00:26:03.150 --> 00:26:05.009 that. What do you mean by failure? When a crisis 00:26:05.009 --> 00:26:08.210 breaks, there is a data void. People are searching 00:26:08.210 --> 00:26:10.509 for information, but verified news takes time. 00:26:11.289 --> 00:26:14.250 Journalists have to check facts. But lies, lies 00:26:14.250 --> 00:26:16.890 are fast and algorithms prioritize engagement, 00:26:17.150 --> 00:26:19.730 not accuracy. So what happened? What was being 00:26:19.730 --> 00:26:22.230 pushed out there? If you Googled Las Vegas shooter 00:26:22.230 --> 00:26:25.369 on Monday morning, the top stories widget, the 00:26:25.369 --> 00:26:27.990 part Google presents as authoritative news linked 00:26:27.990 --> 00:26:30.950 directly to a 4chan thread. 4chan, the anonymous 00:26:30.950 --> 00:26:32.720 message board. That was the Thou story. That 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:35.559 was the top story. And that thread completely 00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:38.420 misidentified the shooter. It claimed he was 00:26:38.420 --> 00:26:40.880 a registered Democrat, an anti -Trump activist, 00:26:41.099 --> 00:26:43.839 and a member of an extremist group. It was total 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:47.660 fiction. But for a few crucial hours, Google 00:26:47.660 --> 00:26:50.440 served it to millions of people as fact. And 00:26:50.440 --> 00:26:52.660 Facebook wasn't much better, I'm guessing. No. 00:26:53.140 --> 00:26:56.180 Sputnik, the Russian state -controlled news agency, 00:26:56.650 --> 00:26:58.730 was trending on Facebook. They were pushing stories 00:26:58.730 --> 00:27:01.569 linking the shooter to terrorists. ISIS actually 00:27:01.569 --> 00:27:03.849 tried to claim him. Right. They gave him a name, 00:27:03.890 --> 00:27:06.930 didn't they? Abu Abdulbar al -Amriqi. They claimed 00:27:06.930 --> 00:27:09.009 he was their soldier. Was there any truth to 00:27:09.009 --> 00:27:12.089 that at all? Zero. Absolutely none. The FBI tore 00:27:12.089 --> 00:27:14.529 Paddock's life apart. They looked at every email, 00:27:14.650 --> 00:27:17.210 every phone call, every travel record. There 00:27:17.210 --> 00:27:19.769 was no connection to ISIS, no connection to international 00:27:19.769 --> 00:27:22.869 terror. But ISIS knew that claiming him would 00:27:22.869 --> 00:27:25.549 spread fear, so they did it. And this misinformation 00:27:25.930 --> 00:27:28.589 had real, tangible consequences for the survivors. 00:27:28.970 --> 00:27:31.890 The crisis actor conspiracy. This is the ugliest 00:27:31.890 --> 00:27:34.589 part of the aftermath. Conspiracy theorists claim 00:27:34.589 --> 00:27:36.710 the shooting was faked, that the victims were 00:27:36.710 --> 00:27:38.990 actors hired by the government to push gun control. 00:27:39.250 --> 00:27:41.329 Unbelievable. Survivors, people who had pulled 00:27:41.329 --> 00:27:43.410 bullets out of their friends, started receiving 00:27:43.410 --> 00:27:46.549 death threats. They were harassed online. It 00:27:46.549 --> 00:27:49.049 added this layer of psychological trauma that 00:27:49.049 --> 00:27:51.829 simply didn't exist 20 years ago. Let's talk 00:27:51.829 --> 00:27:54.309 about the legal side, because the lawsuits here 00:27:54.309 --> 00:27:57.809 were massive. MGM Resorts, the owner of Mandalay 00:27:57.809 --> 00:28:01.910 Bay, faced a suit from 450 victims. And MGM's 00:28:01.910 --> 00:28:05.589 response was legally fascinating and publicly 00:28:05.589 --> 00:28:08.150 disastrous. They countersued the victims. They 00:28:08.150 --> 00:28:09.849 sued the victims? How is that even possible? 00:28:10.190 --> 00:28:12.589 They filed a suit against hundreds of victims, 00:28:12.710 --> 00:28:15.009 but they weren't asking for money. They were 00:28:15.009 --> 00:28:17.529 using a very specific piece of legislation called 00:28:17.529 --> 00:28:21.039 the Safety Act of 2002. Okay, what is that? It 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:23.599 was passed after 9 -11. Basically, it says that 00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:25.720 if a company uses anti -terrorism technology 00:28:25.720 --> 00:28:28.279 or services that are certified by the Department 00:28:28.279 --> 00:28:30.700 of Homeland Security, they cannot be held liable 00:28:30.700 --> 00:28:33.500 for an act of mass violence. I see. MGM argued 00:28:33.500 --> 00:28:35.579 that their security vendor was certified, so 00:28:35.579 --> 00:28:38.039 they were immune. They sued the victims to force 00:28:38.039 --> 00:28:40.599 a federal judge to rule on that immunity immediately. 00:28:41.019 --> 00:28:43.019 So it was a legal maneuver to stop the bleeding 00:28:43.019 --> 00:28:45.240 before it started. It was a hardball tactic. 00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:47.819 It worked, in a sense. It forced a settlement. 00:28:48.619 --> 00:28:51.880 In October 2019, MGM and the victims reached 00:28:51.880 --> 00:28:55.180 a settlement of $800 million. It's a massive 00:28:55.180 --> 00:28:57.700 sum, but it avoided a trial that could have set 00:28:57.700 --> 00:29:00.400 a dangerous precedent on hotel liability. And 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:02.960 of course, the bunk stocks. Paddock put them 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:05.220 on the map. Before this, I mean, most people 00:29:05.220 --> 00:29:07.339 had never even heard of them. Even the NRA initially 00:29:07.339 --> 00:29:09.599 came out and said, OK, maybe these should be 00:29:09.599 --> 00:29:12.880 regulated. In December 2018, the Trump administration 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:16.079 banned them. The Department of Justice reclassified 00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:18.480 them as machine guns. But that didn't stick, 00:29:18.579 --> 00:29:20.940 did it? No. It went all the way to the Supreme 00:29:20.940 --> 00:29:24.480 Court. Just recently, in June of 2024, the Supreme 00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:27.200 Court overturned the ban. On what grounds? A 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:29.920 technicality of language. The National Firearms 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:32.559 Act defines a machine gun as a weapon that fires 00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:34.920 automatically with a single function of the trigger. 00:29:35.549 --> 00:29:38.069 The court ruled that with a bump stock, the trigger 00:29:38.069 --> 00:29:40.150 is still technically being bumped and pulled 00:29:40.150 --> 00:29:42.430 for each shot. It's just happening really, really 00:29:42.430 --> 00:29:44.589 fast. So by the strict letter of the law, it's 00:29:44.589 --> 00:29:46.849 not a machine gun. According to the Supreme Court, 00:29:47.009 --> 00:29:50.450 yes. So unless Congress passes a new law specifically 00:29:50.450 --> 00:29:53.670 defining and banning them, they are legal again. 00:29:53.809 --> 00:29:56.450 Back to square one. So we've covered the logistics, 00:29:56.710 --> 00:29:58.849 the arsenal, the timeline, the heroism, the law. 00:29:59.670 --> 00:30:02.650 But we have to end where we began. The conclusion 00:30:02.650 --> 00:30:06.150 of the investigation itself. August 2018, Sheriff 00:30:06.150 --> 00:30:08.869 Joe Lombardo and the FBI released the final report. 00:30:09.089 --> 00:30:11.430 It is the definitive account. And the conclusion 00:30:11.430 --> 00:30:14.859 is. Silence. No conspiracy. No second gunman. 00:30:14.940 --> 00:30:18.720 No secret plot. And no motive. The FBI Behavioral 00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:21.039 Analysis Unit, the best profilers in the world, 00:30:21.059 --> 00:30:22.920 the people who inspired the show Mindhunter, 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:26.079 could not find a single or clear motivating factor. 00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:29.319 No manifesto on a hard drive. No diary outlining 00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:31.460 his grievances against the world. Nothing. No 00:30:31.460 --> 00:30:34.519 political ideology. No religious extremism. No 00:30:34.519 --> 00:30:36.779 specific grudge against the hotel or the concert 00:30:36.779 --> 00:30:39.480 goers. Just a man who was, in their words, bored. 00:30:39.880 --> 00:30:42.319 aging, losing his status, and who possessed a 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:44.519 high degree of intelligence and a nefarious intent. 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:47.079 That is infinitely more terrifying than a terrorist, 00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:50.299 isn't it? It is. Because we can understand terrorism. 00:30:50.460 --> 00:30:54.079 We can fight an ideology. If he was demonstrably 00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:56.259 crazy, we could talk about mental health funding. 00:30:56.700 --> 00:30:59.240 If he was a disgruntled employee, we could talk 00:30:59.240 --> 00:31:02.099 about workplace violence. But Steven Paddock 00:31:02.099 --> 00:31:05.279 was none of those. He was a cipher. It suggests 00:31:05.279 --> 00:31:07.720 that our safety relies on something very, very 00:31:07.720 --> 00:31:11.400 fragile. It relies on a social contract. We walk 00:31:11.400 --> 00:31:13.259 through the world assuming that the person in 00:31:13.259 --> 00:31:15.220 the hotel room next to us or the guy in the window 00:31:15.220 --> 00:31:18.619 above us agrees the basic rule of don't kill 00:31:18.619 --> 00:31:21.039 people. When someone like Paddock breaks that 00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:23.019 contract without a reason we can comprehend, 00:31:23.380 --> 00:31:25.640 it shatters our sense of order. It makes you 00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:28.940 look at soft targets, festivals, concerts, open 00:31:28.940 --> 00:31:31.299 public spaces completely differently. It changes 00:31:31.299 --> 00:31:33.799 the paradigm. We can harden airports. We can 00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:36.319 put metal detectors in schools. But how do you 00:31:36.319 --> 00:31:38.680 secure an open -air festival from a window 500 00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:42.140 yards away and 32 floors up? It forces us to 00:31:42.140 --> 00:31:44.059 accept that there is a limit to how safe we can 00:31:44.059 --> 00:31:46.599 truly make a free society. That is a heavy note 00:31:46.599 --> 00:31:49.259 to end on, but a necessary one. We wanted to 00:31:49.259 --> 00:31:51.279 move beyond the headlines, and I think looking 00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:53.940 at the sheer mechanical preparation of this crime 00:31:53.940 --> 00:31:56.900 does that. It strips away the myth and leaves 00:31:56.900 --> 00:31:59.720 us with the cold, hard, and deeply unsettling 00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:01.980 reality. And hopefully, by understanding the 00:32:01.980 --> 00:32:03.880 mechanics, the luggage, the surveillance, the 00:32:03.880 --> 00:32:06.960 purchasing patterns, we can better spot the anomalies 00:32:06.960 --> 00:32:09.460 in the future. Maybe the next time someone connects 00:32:09.460 --> 00:32:11.980 the dots before the window breaks. We can only 00:32:11.980 --> 00:32:15.000 hope. Thank you for listening to this deep dive. 00:32:15.140 --> 00:32:17.299 It wasn't an easy one, but we appreciate you 00:32:17.299 --> 00:32:19.460 sticking with us to understand the details. Stay 00:32:19.460 --> 00:32:22.319 curious, stay safe, and we'll see you on the 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:23.019 next deep dive.