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| Mass killer Paddock & his Philippines-born Australian partner. |
ISIS Persists in Vegas Claim, Dubs
Shooter 'Abu Abdul Bar al-Amriki': After federal officials announced today that
they saw no nexus to international terrorism in the Las Vegas Strip massacre,
the Islamic State doubled down with their claim that Stephen Paddock was theirs -- even granting the Mesquite, Nev.,
resident a nom de guerre.
ISIS claimed through their Amaq news agency this morning that the "Las Vegas attacker 'Abu Abdul Bar al-Amriki' is a soldier of the Islamic State who carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting coalition countries." They claimed he had converted to Islam recently. They issued the claim in various languages, without evidence to back it up.
The special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Las Vegas, Aaron Rouse, told reporters, “We have determined, to this point, no connection to an international terrorist group."
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said authorities still don't know the motive of Paddock, 64, who killed himself before SWAT officers accessed his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, a perch he used to unleash automatic weapons fire on an open-air music festival kitty-corner from the hotel.
“We don’t know what his belief system was at this time," Lombardo said. Yet ISIS persisted, issuing a longer official communique that called Paddock "Abu Abdul Bar al-Amriki" -- the American.
The new statement claims Paddock, specifically answering the call of ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, conducted the attack after "accurate monitoring of crusaders" in the venue. It offered no further proof.
The "soldier of the caliphate," the communique says, "equipped with machine guns and ammunition" fired on the concert with "600 between killed and wounded until the soldier's ammunition was finished and he became a martyr." That reflects the most recent toll from Las Vegas law enforcement of at least 58 dead and 515 wounded.
ISIS has in the past claimed attacks that weren't found to be linked to the terror group, including the June attack on a Manila casino that left 37 dead. Shooter Jessie Carlos Javier had problems in his personal life including deep gambling debts, and had been banned from casinos before the attack.
Paddock was known as a high-stakes gambler, though his brother said he had no information on whether the shooter was in financial trouble. “We know nothing. If you told me an asteroid fell it would mean the same to me. There’s absolutely no sense, no reason he did this,” Eric Paddock said. “He’s just a guy who played video poker and took cruises and ate burritos at Taco Bell. There’s no political affiliation that we know of. There’s no religious affiliation that we know of.”
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| The Las Vegas Sheriff said, "This person was radicalized unbeknownst to us and we want to identify that source." ISIS is doubling down in taking credit. |
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| One of several machine guns inside Paddock's hotel room with windows hammered out for the shooting. |
Unarmed Security Guard Took On Las Vegas Killer Stephen Paddock: Jesus Campos found the mass murderer’s location—and drew his fire away from concertgoers—before cops or SWAT arrived.
LAS VEGAS—Jesus Campos had no firearm
when he found Stephen Paddock and approached his room on the 32rd floor of
Mandalay Bay on Sunday night.
Paddock, who had rigged cameras in the
hallway and on the peephole of the door, saw Campos coming and fired through
the door, hitting him in the leg, said Dave Hickey, president of the
International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America. The
union represents Campos and hundreds of security guards at Mandalay Bay.
When Campos was hit, he radioed casino dispatch and told them his
location—and Paddock’s. “We received information via their dispatch center…that
helped us locate where this individual was sequestered,” Clark County Sheriff
Joseph Lombardo told reporters Tuesday.
When Campos first arrived on the 32nd
floor, he did so by elevator because Paddock had somehow blocked stairwell
doors leading to the hallway outside of his room, Hickey said. The door to the
room itself was also barricaded, Campos found when he tried to open it, just
before the bullets came through the door.
Police officers subsequently approached
the room and were met with 200 rounds from Paddock, Lombardo said on Wednesday
night. Police fell back until SWAT arrived. Campos, wounded, stayed on the
floor and even went door-to-door, clearing rooms with police, Lombardo said,
until he was ordered to leave because he was wounded.
About an hour after Paddock quit
firing, a SWAT team gained entry to the suite by blowing the doors off with
explosives. Paddock was found dead inside from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Without Campos’ action, the mass murderer’s rampage that killed 58 people could
have been even more deadly.
Hickey lauded Campos’ bravery on
Wednesday afternoon. “I think we need to recognize the position that these
officers hold,” Hickey said. “Security professionals in those kind of
venues—whether it’s a bank or a hotel or Disney World—I’m telling you that I
don’t think that our officers are recognized enough for the valuable role that
they play in protecting property, people and even the nation.”
Campos was struck in the right leg
where the bullet remains, Hickey said, and will be removed by surgery at a
later date. Campos was well enough to try to leave the hospital not long after
the shooting, but was kept there by staff and police who wanted to monitor his
injury and interview him about his ordeal. “We just want to make sure that Mr.
Campos and all of our officers are recognized for what they do every day, which
is protect people,” Hickey said.
On any given shift, 17 of 200 officers
at the hotel complex are armed, Hickey said. Campos likely just had a
nightstick, useless against a man who had a military-grade arsenal at his
disposal.
'YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE' – SHOCK WARNING
A LAS VEGAS shooting witness was reportedly warned that everyone at the Route 91 music festival was “going to die” 45 minutes before the attack near the Mandalay Bay hotel. More than 50 people were killed and over 200 more injured after the Las Vegas shooting, according to Las Vegas police.
Chilling video has emerged showing the moment gunshots ring out during the busy music festival, cutting short Jason Aldean’s appearance as the packed out audience escaped the shooter in terror.
Joseph Lombardo, the sheriff of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, confirmed the shooter, Stephen Paddock, had been killed by police, adding his flatmate Marilou Danley, who was sought as part of the investigation is now believed not to be involved.
One woman, who was at the Route 91 music event, claimed an unidentified woman had told other concert-goers they were “all going to die” after pushing her way to the front of the venue. The witness, 21, told local news: “She had been messing with a lady in front of her and telling her she was going to die, that we were all going to die. They escorted her out to make her stop messing around with all the other people, but none of us knew it was going to be serious.” She described the lady as Hispanic. The lady was escorted from the venue along with a man.
The unnamed witness, who was attending the event on her 21st birthday, described the pair as short, both around 5 ft 5ins to 5ft 6ins tall, and looked like “everyday people”. She added she and her friends had just made it back to their hotel room when the gunfire started.
Marilou Danley, a person of interest in the Las Vegas Police investigation, was said to be an Asian woman and approximately 4ft 11ins in height. Mr Lombardo said: “We have not located her at this time ad we are invested in talking to her for follow-up.” There is no confirmed police link to the eyewitnesses' claim and Marilou Danley.
Ms Danley and her vehicle has now been located by the police, and it has been confirmed she is not believed to be involved in the mass shooting. Police are also looking for two cars, a Hyundai Tuscon B40 with Nevada plate 114B40 and a Chrysler Pacific Touring with the licence plate 19D401. Both vehicles are registered to the suspect located the Las Vegas hotel.
The attack is now the deadliest shooting in US history. The massacre surpasses the Orlando shooting at the Pulse nightclub in June 2016 when 49 people were killed. More than 58 people were killed and at least 515 injured when a crazed gunman opened fire on a country music festival in Las Vegas.
Mr Lombardo confirmed one of the victims was an off-duty police officer who worked for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Another one of the department’s officers is in a critical condition, the Sherriff added he expects the investigation to be long and protracted.
Mr Lombardo said: "We are looking at in excess of 50 individuals dead and over 200 individuals injured ... Obviously, this is a tragic incident and one that we have never experienced in this valley. My condolences go out to the loved ones. That number for family and friends to get an update on loved ones is 1866 535 5654.”
While discussing the suspect, he added: “We located numerous firearms within the room that he occupied. All’s we know is that they were rifles. We are executing a search warrant on the room.We have officers at his residence, and we will be executing a search warrant there also shortly.
“It is going to be a long and tedious investigation. We are bringing in all the resources of the FBI to assist us in this investigation, in particular to their victim witness advocates and their CSI folks to help us process the scene and ensure that we are getting all the evidence that we can possibly obtain.”
There has been a lot of speculation in both mainstream media and social media about Sunday night’s tragedy in Las Vegas, where, according to the latest from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, 516 people were injured and 59 people were murdered by Stephen Paddock.
Before any real information about the shooter was put out via U.S. media outlets, UTT published a tweet at 6:34 AM CST on Monday assessing the Las Vegas attack was likely a jihadi operation. So far as UTT has been able to ascertain, we were the first organization in America to reach this conclusion.
The following were the basis for that assessment:
1. The Islamic State has previously called for attacks on the U.S. homeland and has specifically mentioned Las Vegas, Nevada as a target.
2. The Islamic State
issued a statement last week through one of it’s information outlets Nasher
News calling for muslims to avoid places in America (and elsewhere) where
“Crusaders” gather and have mentioned major events as good targets.
3. In recent days,
jihadis have launched attacks in Europe.
4. The target of the
attack.
5. The method and execution of the
attack.
While investigation reveals Paddock was a politically left-wing individual with possible Marxist ties to Antifa and other groups, the evidence points to jihad.
Since UTT first published its initial assessment, the Islamic State claimed the Las Vegas attack was conducted by one of their “soldiers.” It should be noted, this is a very strong data point in understanding the events in Las Vegas.
The Islamic State has never claimed responsibility for an attack that was not carried out by a jihadi. Later in the day Monday, the Islamic State issued a second public message calling Stephen Paddock a “soldier of the caliphate” and a “martyr” and stating he converted to Islam in the last few months. The Islamic State further gave Paddock the Arabic name of Abu Abed al Bir Al-Amriki.
The fact the FBI found “no evidence” of links between Paddock and “terrorist organizations” is, in fact, evidence he is likely linked to such organizations. The FBI has been wrong on every single attack of this nature over the last 8 years.
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| UTT founder John Guandolo. |
The government called the massacre at
Fort Hood, Texas and the beheading of a woman in Oklahoma as “workplace
violence.” The government continues to catastrophically fail in their basic
duties to (1) know the enemy and (2) protect the public.
UTT reminds the public that on numerous occasions we have identified threats inside communities that later produced jihadis who initiated attacks inside the United States. Once such case involves the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix (ICCP), which UTT included in several presentations given to law enforcement in Arizona beginning in September 2014. UTT briefed law enforcement and local leaders that the center and its leaders are a danger to the community.
On May 3, 2015, two muslim jihadis from the ICCP went to Garland, Texas to kill people at the Draw Mohammad contest. Fortunately, the jihadis were killed by police before they could harm innocent non-muslims.
While UTT makes this assessment based on the facts at hand, we will be monitoring the ongoing investigation, as well as the response by law enforcement (federal and local), state and national leadership, as well as the Islamic State. We will continue to provide the information and our assessment of the situation to American citizens.
(About JG: John Guandolo is a US Naval Academy graduate, served as an
Infantry/Reconnaissance officer in the United States Marines and is a combat
veteran, served as a Special Agent in the FBI from 1996-2008, and was recruited
out of the FBI by the Department of Defense to conduct strategic analysis of
the Islamic threat. He is the President and Founder of Understanding the Threat
– UTT.)
