Posted on 10/03/2017 8:04:23 AM PDT by LS
Any of you who have been around FR for long know I am NOT a conspiracy theorist. As a historian, I look at evidence first and foremost, then worry about motive.
The shooting in Las Vegas has many as of yet very serious unanswered questions. Few go to motive. I believe in history if you solve the question of actual physical evidence, motives become clear.
I'm not posting links with one exception. These are readily available on Twitter, and on other threads here today, but you have seen them.
1. There now appears to be at least three, and maybe four, videos showing some sort of muzzle flash" from a lower floor on the opposite side from the 32nd floor "sniper's nest." To me, one video is totally convincing. It's about 10 seconds, but that is in my mind no doubt an automatic weapon being fired. In the more newly released video, from a phone in a car that is moving, at first I thought this was not convincing. It easily could have been a stobe light in a room. But a later, better resolution version of this video surfaced. It is NOT a strobe. It goes in "bursts." And it is about the same location as the first one I saw.
These are clearly not "reflections."
2. The immediate response from people seeking to debunk was "yeah but what about broken windows there?"
Glad you asked. This is video from TODAY: https://twitter.com/LarrySchweikart/status/915225436367462401
3. While there IS what appears to be muzzle flash from floors 4-6, so far I have not seen any video showing any muzzle flash from the 32nd floor---despite the fact this guy was using a "machine gun" and shot for over 40 minutes. Not one. Please, please: if you have this video, post it.
I find that extremely odd. There would be some sort of light from the firing position, especially from a machine gun.
4. This is NOT a dis on the Las Vegas cops. It took them an hour to get this guy. Why? They did apparently use a robot to break into his room, wisely fearing a booby-trap. However, why did they not immediately converge on the right floor? I'm only asking: could it be they didn't see any muzzle flash from there? If you saw it, you'd pretty much know immediately where to go in the hotel.
5. People near the room the shooter was in reported it. But they also reported a security guard whom the cops were chasing. (This is from an Australian couple in the very next room).
6. The audio recordings of the police call (posted on other threads here) ALL said the shots were coming from "about half-way up" (Mandalay is 45 stories, right? Is 32 "half-way up?") or "about the 15th floor." This could be simple confusion---but I go back to muzzle flash. You'd only be confused if you were relying on sound alone, which is hard to pin down.
Now, I repeat, I'm not suggesting anything other than to explain the evidence. I'm not saying right-wing, left-wing, ISIS, FBI, or the Marx Brothers. Let me give you an example of how if we just follow evidence we usually arrive at the right conclusion:
In the JFK assassination, there were for years claims of shots fired from the "grassy knoll." Then, in the 1970s, the Dallas Police located a motorcycle microphone recording of an officer who had left his mic on accidentally that day.
What did they find? FOUR distinct "pops." But when they analyzed the sound more closely three came from the Texas Book Depository area and were all the same---Oswald's gun. The fourth came from the area of the officer and was a motorcycle backfire as they started to move.
What did they NOT hear? Any other shots from the grassy knoll. By being willing to entertain the notion of a "fourth shot," historians were able to prove, in fact, there were only three.
We need to approach this very carefully without leaping to the "motivation" conclusions. Just solve three questions: are the images captured now in multiple places muzzle flash? Why are there no (so far) recorded images of muzzle flash at the 32nd floor? And why did the police scanners all place the shooting lower than it was?
Oh, and Freepers, my computer crashed last week. My backup did not have my Freeper Ping list, so if you want on my ping list, please re-send your request again. I hope to get everything back this week, but who knows?
Hi! WELCOME BACK!
I’m confused by the guy’s thorough preparations and apparent knowledge and ownership of guns. I find that discordant with his reported history. But that proves nothing.
If hotel occupants near his room on the 32nd floor heard him firing, that this good information. I saw one story that claimed a smoke detector in his room went off because of all the shots fired.
If there were a second shooter on some other floor — did any hotel occupants near the other room(s) report the noise? Did any other smoke detectors go off?
Most of this is explainable and not a big deal. Frankly, calling the 32’s floor “half way up” a 45 story building would not surprise me. In a situation like that, “half way up” is a very broad range. It means, “not the top and not the bottom.”
Regarding the strobe flashes, two things:
1. I already heard an eyewitness say that the strobe had been going on for a while and they had complained to the hotel management BEFORE any shots were fired.
2. When a strobe light is captured by a video recording device that captures at a slightly different frame rate than the strobe, the strobe can appear to come in bursts. It is because you see it for a few frames, starting at the beginning of the aperture timing of the first frame and ending at the end of the aperture timing of the last frame. Then it is not seen for the few blanks within frames, and then repeats.
I’ve seen this effect in both movies and home videos.
Yes, I do want on the PING List. Thanks!
This just in. Someone says this video of the 3 windows out is from the west side of the Mandalay, while the shooting came from the east side.
So definitely worth examining more closely.
Please put me back on your ping list———thanks.
I always enjoy your take on things. Thank you, LS.
Is there a glass building opposite Mandalay Bay tower? Google Earth shows a construction site.
Ok. Good info.
I understand the fire alarm was going off. There are usually strobes go off along with the audible alarm. The strobes should have been flashing throughout the building.
This is confusing to me also. How did somebody who knows nothing about guns, according to his brother, acquire & reportedly modify them? Why did he have two shooting platforms? How did he know to have two shooting platforms? Did this 64 year-old man run from window to window to shoot? If he did do all of this by himself, where did he get the training?
Surely he must have known he was not going to make it out alive. Why did he have 20 or more guns and explosives back at his ranch? Why did he have ammonium nitrate in his car? Was somebody else involved that was going to use these things?
Hi LS.
The hotel room on the 32nd floor has broken windows, rifles and spent casings. So it’s clear there was shooting from that room. The casings and weapons will be matched to spent bullets and bullets from bodies. If some don’t match, then there’s a problem.
If there was shooting from another room even the maids would know by now. I don’t see where you are going with this, and I don’t see how you can conclude the flashes are gun shots. How do know those flashes aren’t reflections or something else? If there was shooting from another location, there will be bullets found that won’t match the guns on the 32nd floor.
So, it will be obvious. Ignoring it will require a coverup that will have to include police and the hotel itself.
I don’t find that possibility realistic. Looking forward to your further comments and I appreciate your attempt to find new evidence.
Is there any object from which the muzzle flash could project from an angle of the flash suppressor and illuminate the 4-6th floor windows?
I’m still troubled by the number of weapons and the fact that there were 2 firing positions. And the fact that this was expertly planned. None of that is compatible with this guy’s past experience.
That and the fact that he and his girlfriend had been to a resort in Dubai. Reported with picture post on her Facebook page.
With lots of other things that just don’t seem to fit.
And an Israeli newspaper yesterday published that he converted to Islam at age 30. Very strange. And ISIS claimed credit for it.
These are clearly not "reflections."
Sound activated strobe light that went off every time the sound of gunfire reached it.
There are no broken windows on the lower floors, so obviously no one fired out of any of those rooms. A "party" strobe is not an unusual thing in a party town.
I find that extremely odd. There would be some sort of light from the firing position, especially from a machine gun.
Not if the guy backed up into the room a bit. If his gun was mounted on a tripod, it would not be seen unless he stuck the barrel outside the window. Also, he probably had a flash suppressor on the gun.
Just one point to make. At about 30 minutes in the police audio an officer says the guy has not fired for about 15 minutes. I have not seen any reference to firing after that first ten to fifteen minutes.
Many people vacation in Dubai-———why on earth should this be a factor?
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The news said he also hunted in Alaska? Hunters know all about this stuff. His "knowledge" of guns was pretty basic. Anybody who has guns as a hobby knows this stuff.
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