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Jesus Campos, the hotel security guard who may have been the first person shot by Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock on Oct. 1, will reappear eventually, the parent company of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Hotel implied in an email Tuesday.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, MGM spokeswoman Debra DeShong provided a written statement revealing that Campos is not missing.
“Jesus Campos wants to tell his story at a time and place of his choosing,” DeShong stated. “He’s asked that everyone respect his request for privacy. We could not be more proud of Jesus.”
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Police refused to comment on Campos’ whereabouts.
“He is a victim in this and we don’t discuss victims,” Las Vegas police officer and spokesman Larry Hadfield said on Tuesday.
As reported by Fox News, Campos has not been seen in public since Thursday, when he was honored by the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, which represents the security guards at the hotel where Campos works.
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Union president David Hickey said that when he went into a meeting in a hotel suite that Campos was in an adjacent room with another union member, but was gone when he came out.
“When I got in touch with the other union member, I was told Campos was taken to the Quick Care” health clinic, Hickey said.
“We have had no contact with him,” he added. “Clearly, somebody knows where he is.”
Campos was shot in the thigh by Paddock, who left what some accounts have said were 200 bullet holes in the door of the hotel suite he occupied.
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Information about exact moment when Campos was shot has been changed twice. Initial timelines said he was shot during Paddock’s attack and shortly before the shooting stopped. That was later revised to six minutes before the shooting began, and then again to just seconds before Paddock opened fire on the concert-goers below.
It has not been fully explained why the unarmed guard was outside the door of Paddock’s room when no shots had been fired. Although Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said Campos was investigating an alarm that was triggered by a door left ajar on the 32nd floor, Fox News quoted a past Mandalay Bay employee as saying no such system existed.
Hotel and police have credited Campos with reporting Paddock’s location to police. However, other accounts show that first responders were unsure of the shooter’s location.
Existing timelines do not outline when the hotel notified authorities of Paddock’s location.
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