Shooting in Las Vegas: how many people were shooting in the crowd?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Why the official version of the lone maniac is bursting at the seams.

Five days have passed since the tragic incident with the shooting of visitors to a music festival in Las Vegas. The tragedy took place on Monday night, and the main news on Friday is that YouTube videos are gaining popularity that shooting a crowd in the square is a routine staging. Its goal is to change the way firearms are trafficked in the United States. While the relatives of the dead and wounded are outraged, videos with interpretations of the incident inconvenient for the authorities are gaining views. Why are they so popular? Because there are still much more questions than answers, and the official version of a “lonely shooter” with mental disabilities is bursting at the seams.

Why People Doubt Stephen Paddock Is Really a "Lone Wolf"

No one can answer the question - why did a 64-year-old wealthy American suddenly go mad so that he began to shoot the crowd? The version of sudden insanity is untenable - the murder was too well planned. Previously, no one knew about Paddock, including the US intelligence services. He was not involved, was not involved, led a quiet life as a poker player, but at the same time he was preparing a terrible crime. It turns out that Paddock is a maniac who led a double life for a long time. But what was it?

No suicide notes, inappropriate behavior or dissatisfaction with the authorities - the investigation is intensely looking for an answer to the question "why", but so far unsuccessfully. Why would a poker player arrange a weapons arsenal from his hotel room and start firing at the crowd? “We are looking for motives, looking for something to explain this act, but we cannot find,” FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe admitted yesterday.

Any crime must have a purpose. In the crime of the 64-year-old former accountant and VIP-client of the casino, she was not - and this despite the fact that it was carefully prepared. Perhaps too thorough for a poker player and real estate dealer.

10 bags with 23 barrels were found in Paddock's hotel room. The first question is how did they get there? The answer of the investigation: "They were brought by the maniac Paddock." An excellent version, and most importantly, very convincing. Imagine 10 bags and suitcases full of trunks. Not purely visually, but by weight - it is 80-90 kg (excluding the filled stores). Now imagine a 64-year-old accountant carrying almost 100 kg of iron into the room. How? If on his own, he has excellent physical training. If with the help of porters - why are there still no testimonies, where do they describe in paints how they brought heavy suitcases into the room? And where are the surveillance footage?

And why does Paddock need 23 barrels, when three would be enough for him to commit a crime? During such intense firing, the barrel can really be bent - but 23 weapons? Was it all used by one person?

The version about the "lonely arrow" is so untenable that even the investigation began to doubt it. “I don’t imagine that such a crime could have been committed by one person,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said at a press conference on Wednesday. Other sources in the investigation claim that Paddock may have been assisted by unknown persons. Independent investigative bloggers have even counted their number.

How many people shot a crowd in Las Vegas

So, at the crime scene in Paddock's hotel room, an AK-47 and an AR-15 assault rifle were found (among other barrels). This is an analogue of the M-16. The weapon has an excellent rate of fire: 700-900 rounds per minute. Thus, in 9 minutes of firing, Paddock could release about 8000 bullets. Everything seems to fit - with these characteristics, the nearly 600 victims of the attack (including the wounded) seem like a plausible number.

But only at first glance. One has only to deprive these figures of their academic character, transferring them from theory to the canvas of a real situation, as the version of the lone shooter begins to demonstrate complete inconsistency.

With long bursts, the barrel of the weapon heats up a lot: at 400 rounds per minute up to 250C. In this case, the diameter of the channel increases by one and a half times: it is impossible to fire from such a weapon, since the bullet does not receive the necessary acceleration for flight. It was for these reasons that the former accountant had to take new barrels from his arsenal of weapons. Taking into account the time spent on changing weapons and magazines, this reduced the rate of fire to 3-4 thousand rounds.

But even such a rate of fire is ineffective: due to recoil when firing in bursts, the barrel is diverted to the side. As a result, the first shots hit the target, and the rest fly away into the milk.

But what kind of "milk" are we talking about, if the point of defeat in the form of a crowd in searchlights is not a specific target, but a continuous bright spot? Wasn't it enough for Paddock to just shoot in the direction of the crowd to hit nearly 600 targets? No, not enough, and here's why.

From the windows of the 32nd floor to the crowd at the festival - about 400 meters. Under such firing conditions, a deviation of only 10C would lead to significant dispersion of bullets. Lower the Paddock barrel 10 degrees down and the firing zone is 250 meters from the hotel. Raise it 10 degrees up and the bullets will fly 5 km away from the crowd. In such conditions, spectators find themselves outside the firing zone - they hear the sound of shooting, Steve Paddock aims at them, but the bullets fly away in the other direction.

On numerous footage from the scene of the tragedy, one can hear that the crowd is being fired upon in short bursts with short interruptions. This manner of shooting further reduces the rate of fire - only about 1500-2000 shots can be fired in 9 minutes. In such conditions, it is extremely difficult to hit about 600 people with fire.

During the use of the M-16 rifle, the target hit at a distance of 300 meters occurs in 20% of cases. Former 64-year-old accountant Paddock managed to show a shooting efficiency of 30-40% at a greater distance.

Such indicators are possible only in two cases: 1) In parallel with Paddock, other shooters with a high level of training were firing 2) Other shooters fired at the crowd from better positions, allowing for more casualties.

Now we will return to these two points, but in the end there is a small detail. Judging by the footage from the scene of the shooting, Stephen Paddock equipped two firing points, knocking out the panoramic windows of the rooms in two different rooms. The distance between the firing positions is 10-15 meters. But everything is not so simple: if you believe the room plan, the rooms are located at opposite ends of the room, and the door to the rooms is in the opposite corner from the window (firing position). So to commit a crime, Paddock had to constantly run from room to room, although nothing prevented him from equipping a second firing point in the next window.

“It could well have been the second person,” says Konstantin Sivkov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences. “But even if it was, then the fire performance of 3-4 shots per second is extremely high.”

So how many people were actually shooting the crowd at the festival? And where could they be?

Two of the casket are the same from the face: what the American media are silent about

To date, independent investigators of the Vegas incident are confident about at least two accomplices of Stephen Paddock, firing from opposite positions. The first shooter was located on the 13-15th floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino (in the same building as the "official shooter" Paddock), the second was firing from the ground from the area where most of the spectators ran after the start of the panic.

The first shooter appears in at least two eyewitness video recordings; he is also mentioned in the negotiations of the police officers who promptly arrived at the scene of the incident.

“We observe a firing point on the middle floors of Mandalay Bay from the north side, we see flashes of weapons,” the police reported. “The fire is being conducted from about the 15th floor.”

In other reports, the cops talk about appeals from civilians, where they are told about three of some kind of shooters. "We receive reports that there may be three arrows (or three more, or only three - it is not clear)" - such recordings of negotiations, allegedly belonging to the Las Vegas police, are now posted on the network.

On other tapes, cops report that the fire is coming from Gate 7, opposite the concert stage on the opposite side from Mandalay Bay.

The fire of the first shooter was recorded in at least two video recordings from different points - for example, a taxi driver who arrived at a hotel call was able to film a flash of fire at the 13-15th floor. Eyewitnesses reported about the shooter (or shooters) firing from the ground in social networks.

“To everyone who knows that I am now at a festival in Las Vegas, I would like to inform you that I am doing well,” Christie Sinsara tweeted. “The shooter was right next to us, around the corner. This is not yet reported in the news, but there were several shooters who shot people from different points. The one who was next to us ran away towards Tropicana."

Video footage from the scene also shows a man in a security vest with a submachine gun in his hands, aiming at the side of a crowd running at him. He might have been a police officer, but who could he aim at in the crowd?

So there are many more questions related to this tragedy than answers. On the popular YouTube hosting, new investigative videos appear every day, as the official version of the "lone maniac shooter" Stephen Peddock seems to many to be untenable.

Author: Maxim Maximov

So ladies and gentlemen

1. Grandpa was framed

1.1. Try to smuggle 10 automatic rifles and zinc rounds into the hotel. I will look at this sight. About 70-80 kg must be dragged.

1.2. Try to fire 800-1000 aimed shots in 10 minutes with a reload. Precisely sighting. Because it will not work just like that, pouring automatic fire on 60 corpses and 400 wounded. And the rifle will die before

1.3 Push up 100 times from the floor. You can do it in about 10 minutes. How does one breathe? This is roughly the equivalent of 1,000 rounds from an M16 (or AK-47). How old are you? In-in. And grandfather is 64.

1.4 How many were knocked out of the growth target? And the distance from the 32nd floor is at least 150-200 meters along the trajectory. There was the slightest movement, and everything flew away. It is necessary to have very good preparation in order to crumble several hundred running people into cabbage from such a distance.

2.1 Trump's main asset is the NRA. Take away the power of the NRA, take away Trump. Waves of r * vna will rise now for the prohibition of weapons, etc., etc. And the NRA will actively trample.

2.2 The location is just perfect for Trump's sore spot. And a reminder that there is nowhere to hide.

2.3 The event is also significant - a country festival. Middle-class white men, typical hinterland farmers. No blacks, lesbians and others. This is so as not to accidentally cripple their own.

3.1 Las Vegas is better guarded than Fort Knox. In addition to the police, there are still a bunch of full-time armed security guards in hotels and casinos, because there is a lot of money, and security is needed so that this money remains there and flows there again and again. It is necessary to make it all idle for a couple of tens of minutes. Who can do it?

3.2 It is necessary to choose a place, event, purchase and deliver equipment, rent a room. And do it all without attracting attention. Let me remind you about 80 kg of weapons and ammunition. And all this is in the center of the gambling industry, where every receptionist can, by your look, determine how much you have lost today.

Well, in general, a classic. You can add a few more points …