Las Vegas Police Department Releases Body Camera Footage From October Mass Shooting

After the wake of the largest mass-shooting in modern-day United States history back in October 2017, Las Vegas police are finally releasing the body camera footage.

At the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, a 64-year old male shooter went on a killing spree as he fired into an open crowd from his hotel room on the 32 floor. The incident took the lives of 58 people attending a music festival across the street and sparked a horde of police that surged the hotel.

The footage shows police officers responding to the call of a mass shooter with an assault weapon, as well as the team that moved in on his hotel room. The shooter had broken the glass of his window to fire on the unsuspecting crowd.

In total, the released footage is about two and a half hours long and displays the efforts of the Las Vegas Police Department to apprehend the shooter. Officers communicate with one another, trying to piece together the situation. NPR pulled some dialogue from one of the clips:

"'I'm really thinking this is just a one-guy thing,' one officer says. 'I hope so, but what about all the other calls, was that just people panicking?' another asks. 'People panicking, sounds like,' someone says."

Upon entering the room, officers found the shooter already dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, as well as multiple assault rifles and an entire suitcase full of AK-47 magazines.

The footage is being released after multiple complaints from media outlets. While the footage held no significance in prosecuting the shooter, the Las Vegas Police Department was hesitant to release the footage. They tried to delay the release, stating that the footage would "have a significant impact on the victims of this incident" and that the "graphic footage will further traumatize a wounded community."

Police car cameras (dash cams) and body cameras are known to have significant benefits with both public transparency and incident correctness, and officers equipped with body cams receive 93% fewer public complaints, according to recent studies.

Although, the newly released footage only shows the valiant efforts of the Las Vegas PD. There was no shootout, or car chase, or anything of the nature that would make for a media frenzy.

The police officers involved did their job extremely well while trying to protect the citizens of their community.

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