What can Western Washington police learn from Vegas shooting?

Oct 3, 2017, 9:08 AM

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

The Ron & Don Show

Pierce County Sheriff Detective Ed Troyer witnessed first-hand the violence incurred during the most deadly mass shooting in our nation’s history.

Troyer was in Las Vegas when Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of more than 22,000 people attending a country music festival near the Vegas Strip.

“It was something I hope to never see again,” he told KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don Show.

Unless we, as a country, are willing to “stifle our own freedoms,” Troyer says mass shootings will likely continue.

“When there are big, open performances like this, you’re not going to stop this unless you block roads off for miles …” he said, adding that people would need to accept being searched on a more constant basis, not just when flying or heading into an event.

“If not, then this won’t stop.”

King County Sheriff John Urquhart told KIRO 7 the massacre should be a wake-up call for police.

Paddock fired round after round from his room on the 32nd floor in the Mandalay Bay Bay Resort and Casino. Urquhart said what occurred in Vegas is a situation “we haven’t trained for.”

“We haven’t trained for it; we haven’t seen it,” he said. “What are we going to do now? That’s the problem.”

Urquhart says law enforcement will need to study the scenario and add training.

“Now you’ve got a situation where you could have someone in a high-rise that you can never get to. That you could never know is there. This guy was in that hotel room since the 28th? And brought a tremendous amount of firepower in there, undetected. It’s a game changer,” Urquhart says.

Paddock had checked into the hotel room he used as a sniper’s perch on Sept. 28. The shooting occurred the night of Oct. 1. He had a cache of weapons in his room.

Urquhart says the mass shooting should also be a wake-up call for event-goers in Seattle.

“If something happens, how do I get out without running the way that I came in because that’s probably the way the bad guy came in,” said Urquhart.

Troyer says police are constantly adapting.

“For everything we do, there’s someone planning something different to go after us…”

Listen to the interview with Troyer here.

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