My thinking is based on what I am convinced, so far, are muzzle flashes at about the 6th floor, obvious on three different videos. They don’t last long. No, they are not the “strobe light” that is clearly seen in another video, which is a regular pulse . . (flash, flash, flash), NOT one timed to the sound of the machine gun (flash-flash-flash-flash . . . . flash-flash... flash-flash-flash, HIGHlY irregular).
No, I cannot explain yet whether a window had a crack known as a vent strip he could fire through, or anything else. Just working off the flash-—one piece of evidence at a time. SO . . .
I think this was a multi-tiered attack gone wrong. The lower level shooter was tasked with drawing LEOs to his general area. He apparently did not fire long. He either was not supposed to fire long, or chickened out. But if you listen to the police scanner, ALL of the initial reports were “halfway up” (not top or 32nd floor), “15th floor” or similar comments. My guess is that he was to provide extra time for Paddock to kill. Either way, to my knowledge, no one yet has even mentioned searching the 6th floor (or thereabouts). As little as he apparently fired-—maybe for only a few minutes-—he wouldn’t have had much to clean up.
Paddock, meanwhile, apparently used “flash suppressors.” This is interesting in and of itself. Why? If he’s making a statement, if he wants people to know who he is, why not attract the cops right away? But clearly he wanted to do a lot of killing before being taken out. Why didn’t Mr. 6th Floor use a flash suppressor? Only answer is, his job was to BE seen.
Here’s where I think the grand scheme went wrong: given the evidence of anfo bombs at his house, I think there likely was a third phase of this in which a driver was to get close to the shooting scene as cops and medics arrived & detonate. But something prevented that-—cowardice, couldn’t get past cop roadblocks, whatever.
With this much planning, my biggest question would be, “Why stop there?” I hope I’m wrong about Mr. 6th Floor, but the visible (apparent) muzzle flash there, combined with Paddock’s flash suppressor is REALLY troubling.
Oh, and Rush playing the Police Chief saying “we have the suspect IN CUSTODY.” Paddock is dead. Who is in custody? Shooter #2?
Nothing special here. All ARs with few exceptions come with a muzzle fixture which suppresses flash.
It was only during the lifetime of the AWBAN (1994-2004) that new production ARs did not have this muzzle fixture.