How did they find out it was blocked?
Maybe someone staying in the hotel tried to use the stairway, and reported it was blocked.
The stairwell door opens into the stairwell. Fire codes. The only way it can be blocked is on the stair side, not the hallway side.
The cops said (story subject to change!) they couldn’t get up the stairwell because it was blocked. So, like they couldn’t unblock it from their side. So, they want us to believe they walked back up/down the stairs to another floor and then arrived on the elevator. That’s a lot of wasted time if shots were being fired.... Which now we are told shots were being fired at them through the door. Yeah, WHATEVER! They’re going to confuse the story so much, we’ll never know the truth and that’s exactly what they’re wanting. Thank you, swamp creature, Mueller.