Police response to Vegas shooting divides experts, survivor

Police and hotel employees' actions as gunfire rained from a Las Vegas resort onto an outdoor concert drew mixed reactions Thursday after newly released video showed authorities making their way through a casino and carefully checking rooms before bursting into the shooter's suite.

This photo from an Oct. 1, 2017, police officer body camera video provided Wednesday, May 2, 2018, by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, shows an officer amid automatic weapons found after they breached the shooter's room during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history by Stephen Paddock, at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas, released. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP)

Security experts and a survivor of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history said the footage from officers' body-worn cameras offered only a glimpse of what unfolded as police responded to the rampage and didn't provide clues about why the gunman killed 58 people and injured hundreds last fall.

"There's no real context that gives any kind of glue to put this puzzle together," said Brian Claypool, an attorney from Pasadena, California, who survived the Oct. 1 shooting and now represents dozens of victims and families considering suing for damages.

"What the survivors and people across this country want to see are answers," Claypool said. "How did this happen? Why did it happen? And could this have been prevented?"

This photo from police officer video body camera footage on Oct. 1, 2017, provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, shows officers as they breach the shooter's room during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history by Stephen Paddock, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, released Wednesday, May 2, 2018. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP)

The Associated Press and other news organizations sued to obtain videos, 911 recordings, evidence logs and interview reports to shed light on the response by public agencies, emergency workers and hotel officials. Videos spanning 2½ hours were released Wednesday, and more recordings will come in batches in coming weeks.

A preliminary report released in January said Stephen Paddock meticulously planned the attack, researched police SWAT tactics, rented hotel rooms overlooking outdoor concerts and investigated potential targets in at least four U.S. cities. Police said the 64-year-old high-stakes video poker player killed himself as authorities closed in.

An expert in police tactics dismissed questions about whether officers should have evacuated the packed Mandalay Bay casino, where gamblers played slots seemingly unaware of the shooting 32 floors above them.

"There's no textbook. Every incident is unique," said Thor Eells, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association. "The last thing they want to do is create more chaos and put people ... into potential fields of fire."

This photo from police officer video body camera footage on Oct. 1, 2017, provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, shows officers going up a stairway during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history by Stephen Paddock, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, released Wednesday, May 2, 2018. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP)

Mehmet Erdem, a hotel operations professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said employees are trained to avoid inciting panic in guests.

"Looking at the video objectively, there's no flags, nothing that shows any indication of negligence from the hotel management perspective," Erdem said. "You want them to get out, but you want them to do so in an orderly manner."

Members of the initial police team who got to Mandalay Bay didn't know if there were multiple assailants or where they might be, Eells said.

Video showed the officers with armored shields methodically checking rooms on the 29th, 30th and 31st floors before igniting an explosive charge at the door of the shooter's room on the 32nd.

"Every door they pass or come in contact with is a potential adversary," said Bernard Zapor, a former agent in charge with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Milwaukee and Phoenix.

This photo from police officer video body camera footage on Oct. 1, 2017, provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, shows officers searching hallways during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history by Stephen Paddock, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, released Wednesday, May 2, 2018. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP)

"For the amount of people who were in there, you are basically having an active-shooter scene in a small city," Zapor said. "The complexity of this is unimaginable. I think they did everything they were supposed to do."

Tim Bedwell, a retired North Las Vegas police lieutenant, SWAT officer and Marine, said he believed police acted too slowly. Bedwell is running against Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo to head the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

"They should have gone directly to that room, breached that room and engaged the threat," Bedwell said. "In this case, it has been said that Metro slowed because the shooting stopped. The problem is they didn't know it stopped. There was still a need to treat it as an active-shooter and go direct to the threat."

Unlike previous video released by police, the footage made public Wednesday was not stamped with time and date information.

This photo from police officer video body camera footage on Oct. 1, 2017, provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, shows officers deploying a shield and weapons during the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history by Stephen Paddock, at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, released Wednesday, May 2, 2018. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP)

Lombardo said this week that no one in the department would comment on the videos, and a police spokesman reiterated that Thursday.

Jim Ferrence, Lombardo's campaign manager, said Bedwell should be ashamed of trying to score political points on a horrific act of violence.

Claypool, who escaped injury at the concert, questioned why police have not released audio of a hotel security guard alerting staff that he had been shot on the 32nd floor and why police who arrived didn't seem to know which floor they were going to.

"Every second mattered in that shooting," he said. "That's where I'm upset in looking at this footage."

With prices for many things creeping up this year, gardeners shopping for supplies might be looking to tighten their tool belts.

Before heading to the garden center, take a look around your home, garage, shed and recycling bin. There might be some perfectly good gardening gear hiding in plain sight.

Plastic yogurt containers with holes poked in their bottoms make wonderful seed-starting pots. So do plastic clamshell lettuce and berry containers.

Do you grow peonies? The plants are beautiful –- for about two weeks in spring, after which they give up and lie down on the lawn. I’ve seen peony plant supports selling for $10 for thin wire cages to well over $100 for sturdier, prettier options.

But why buy them when large lampshade frames are the perfect height and shape to support the plants? Remove their fabric and place one upside down over each plant as soon as new growth pokes out of the ground, then bury their bases or use landscape pins to hold them in place.

As the plants grow, their leaves will block the frames from view.

Similarly, you can spend $50 to $100 for an obelisk trellis, or you can let your plants climb an old patio umbrella frame. Cut its legs down to size, if necessary, and sink them into the ground for stability.

Fish emulsion is a fantastic organic fertilizer made from whole fish and byproducts. You can make your own by soaking fish scales, bones and entrails in a sealed 5-gallon bucket of water for at least a month, then straining the liquid and using it to water plants.

Or give your plants the same nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulfur) by burying a whole fish or fish scraps at least 10-12 inches deep under planting beds.

If you’re an angler, you may have access to a boatload of these amendments, but if you aren’t, your local fishmonger may be willing to give you scraps and heads — or sell them at low cost.

Plants will also benefit from used fish-tank water, which is rich in nitrogen and other nutrients.

After boiling vegetables, cool the water and apply it to plants (as long as you didn't add salt). It contains vitamins and minerals that will give them a boost. Water from boiled eggs contains calcium, which tomato and pepper plants love.

You can even use eggshells in place of garden lime, as they both contain calcium carbonate. Microwave empty shells for two minutes to dehydrate them, then grind in a high-powered blender, coffee grinder or food processor. Incorporate the resulting powder into the soil around plants. The same can be done with banana peels. Dehydrated in an air fryer and and pulverized, they'll provide plant-boosting potassium.

Making free lawn fertilizer is a zero-effort endeavor. Whether you use a push mower or a powered mulching mower, simply remove the bag and let the grass clippings remain on the lawn. As they break down, they’ll release nitrogen into the soil.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

FILE - A man uses a manual lawn mower to cut his lawn in Chicago on May 9, 2007. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

Cherry tomato containers are repurposed to serve as seed-starting pots in Waitsfield, Vt., on Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Lessard)

Cherry tomato containers are repurposed to serve as seed-starting pots in Waitsfield, Vt., on Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Lessard)