{"id":108282,"date":"2019-07-03T06:33:49","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T13:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=108282"},"modified":"2019-07-11T09:27:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T16:27:32","slug":"las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Metro Police Fired Officer Who Froze During October 1, 2017 Mandalay Bay Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Las Vegas Metro Police Officer who admitted to being \u201cterrified with fear\u201d and \u201cfreezing up\u201d in a corridor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino as a gunman sprayed hundreds of rounds of ammunition on concertgoers from the floor above has been fired, the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> has learned.<\/p>\n

\"Mandalay
Footage from Hendrex\u2019s bodycam shows the former Metro Police officer holding position on the floor below Stephen Paddock\u2019s suite as shots ring out above his head. (Image: LVMPD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Officer Cordell Hendrex<\/a> could have intervened and potentially stopped the attack of October 1, 2017, which lasted ten minutes and left 58 people dead, but remained paralyzed for around four and a half minutes on the floor below.<\/p>\n

In his own report of the events of that night, he admitted \u201chesitating\u201d and \u201cnot knowing what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 11:20\u00a0pm, just over an hour after the firing had stopped, police breached shooter Stephen Paddock\u2019s room with explosives to find the attacker dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.<\/p>\n

Hendrex was not initially sacked. According to media reports, he was still working for Metro police as of June last year. It was almost certainly these reports that hastened his departure from the department he had served since 2008.<\/p>\n

According to police union president Steve Grammas, Hendrex was fired in March of this year after an internal affairs investigation was launched in response to footage from Hendrex\u2019s body camera being widely circulated in the media.<\/p>\n

Bodycam Video<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The footage was acquired only after several media organizations sued for its release<\/a>, along with other reports and records pertaining to the incident.<\/p>\n

Initially without sound, the footage shows Hendrex and his trainee officer Elif Varsin leaving the Mandalay Bay security office with two security guards seconds before the attack began. As the audio kicks in the words \u201cactive shooter\u201d can be heard in the background.<\/p>\n

When an officer radios in that the shots are coming from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, Hendrex, Varsin and the casino security offers make their way to the elevator. It is not known why they get out at the 31st floor.<\/p>\n

A full two minutes elapses before Hendrex announces his position over police radio.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe need to stop the shooter before we have more victims. Does anyone have eyes on the shooter?\u201d asks a voice on the radio.<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hendrex does not respond but begins slowly walking down the corridor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are you going, sir?\u201d asks one of the security officers.<\/p>\n

At this point the attack had apparently ended and Paddock may have already been dead.<\/p>\n

Dismissal Unjust: Police Union<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Grammas told the Review-Journal<\/em> Tuesday that, in his view, Hendrex should not have been fired and believes he became a scapegoat only when the media began asking awkward questions.<\/p>\n

Everybody talks about how they would respond to these things,\u201d Grammas said. \u201cBut no one knows until they are up against that evil.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe had plenty of officers doing heroic things, and there were officers who were afraid of the situation but still acted,\u201d he added. \u201cCordell was up there. He was on that 31st floor. And he had a lot of things to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Broward Sheriff’s Office school resource officer\u00a0Scott Peterson was arrested on 11 criminal charges relating to his alleged failure to protect schoolchildren caught up in last year\u2019s Parkland shooting in Florida.<\/p>\n

Peterson was armed, on-site and wearing a bulletproof vest, but remained outside the building during the rampage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Las Vegas Metro Police Officer who admitted to being \u201cterrified with fear\u201d and \u201cfreezing up\u201d in a corridor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino as a gunman sprayed hundreds of rounds of ammunition on concertgoers from the floor above has been fired, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned. Officer Cordell Hendrex could have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":108284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLas Vegas Police Fired Officer Who Froze During Mandalay Bay Massacre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Officer Cordell Hendrix, who \u2018froze\u2019 rather than attempting to stop Stephen Paddock from carrying out Vegas shooting has been fired.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Las Vegas Police Fired Officer Who Froze During Mandalay Bay Massacre\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Officer Cordell Hendrix, who \u2018froze\u2019 rather than attempting to stop Stephen Paddock from carrying out Vegas shooting has been fired.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-03T13:33:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-11T16:27:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/cordell.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1309\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"687\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/\",\"name\":\"Las Vegas Police Fired Officer Who Froze During Mandalay Bay Massacre\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/cordell.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-03T13:33:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-11T16:27:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Officer Cordell Hendrix, who \u2018froze\u2019 rather than attempting to stop Stephen Paddock from carrying out Vegas shooting has been fired.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-police-fired-officer-who-froze-during-mandalay-bay-massacre\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/cordell.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/cordell.jpg\",\"width\":1309,\"height\":687,\"caption\":\"Footage from Hendrix\u2019s bodycam shows the former Metro Police officer holding position on the floor below Stephen Paddock\u2019s suite as shots ring out above his head. 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He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. 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