While a gunman rained down bullets from a hotel room into a crowd of concertgoers in Las Vegas, a police officer stood one floor below, temporarily frozen with fear. Now that officer has been fired for failing to act.
Officer Cordell Hendrex was fired by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in March for his lack of action during the shooting that killed 58 and wounded 515 others, Las Vegas Police Protective Association President Steve Grammas told the New York Times.
Footage from Hendrex’s body camera shows him, another officer, and a security guard standing and walking in the hallway on the 31st floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel as the gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock was firing hundreds of rounds of ammunition into a packed country concert below. The body camera shows the group reporting that the shooter was one floor above them, but for several minutes they remained put.
Hendrex said in a report that he was terrified during the incident.
“I know I hesitated and I remember being terrified with fear and I think that I froze right there in the middle of the hall for how long I can’t say,” he wrote.
Grammas said his police union would work to contest Hendrex’s termination through arbitration with a final decision expected in August or September. Grammas argues that Hendrex showed more bravery than some others who responded to the gunfire.
“Let’s not forget, he was still on that 31st floor,” Grammas said.
The firing came just months before School Resource Officer Scot Peterson, 56, was arrested and charged with child neglect and perjury for failing to act during the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which killed 17 and injured 17 others.
