Stephen Schuck, a hotel maintenance engineer at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, was on the 32nd floor when the Las Vegas shooter began firing at hotel guard Jesus Campos. It was allegedly six minutes before the massacre which left 58 innocents dead and 489 injured, some very severely.
Mr. Schuck told hotel dispatchers to call the police. That was before Paddock opened fire on the crowd three football fields away. Paddock also fired at fuel tanks 2,000 feet from the window, trying to set off an explosion.
A call to check on the exit door brought Mr. Schuck to the killer’s floor. As he walked down the hallway he could hear the shots.
“I started to hear shots ring out”. Jesus popped out and yelled to take cover, Mr. Schuck said.
“I am incredibly blessed that somehow I came out of there alive,” he added as he thanked Jesus for saving his life.
Schuck reported the shooting on his radio, telling a dispatcher: “Call the police, someone’s firing a gun up here. Someone’s firing a rifle on the 32nd floor down the hallway.” It is not known if the hotel dispatchers contacted the police. All that we know is six minutes elapsed before police made their way to the 32nd floor.
Mr. Campos and Mr. Schuck believe the killer shot 200 rounds through the peephole because they never saw the killer come out. Mr. Schuck could feel the rounds pass around him in the hallway. He felt one pass by the back of his head.
