Why Did Paddock Stop Shooting

So from the first rounds fired to the SWAT team's entrance was 72 minutes, yet the firing only lasted around 11 minutes.

Apparently, the SWAT team saw Paddock kill himself:

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So he was alive for around an hour and could have easily sprayed thousands more rounds into crowds, police cars, other hotels, heck he could have wasted some more rounds shooting at the jet fuel tanks at the airport (jet fuel is like kerosene and is very hard to detonate).

Why did he stop shooting?

He probably felt he had shot enough people and didn't want first responders from interfering with his suicide.

So why did he wait for an hour, until the SWAT team's breech of the door?

Raiding the minibar one last time, I suppose.

In men, adrenaline hits hard and fast, nearly at the instant it's called for. In women, adrenaline takes longer to hit when there's a potential threat. In law enforcement and other use of force professions, that means you can trust a male to amp up immediately and calm down later, whereas the female will be compliant at first and a ball of hair, teeth and nails a moment later.

So: Facing an agitated male suspect, you attempt to draw out the engagement without violence for as long as possible so the suspect no longer has the benefit of adrenaline in the fight. In fact, he may feel incredibly weak and drained. When taking a female into custody, it's best to get the process over with quickly.

Paddock's shooting likely induced a chemical cocktail of endorphins and adrenaline that made the first half anything from sustainable to highly enjoyable. The second half was likely a fit of bravado, mixed with intense loathing and self doubt. The final rounds were his last battle against the effects of the ebb of that chemical cocktail. By the time SWAT was ready to make entry, he was likely fully exhausted, mentally, physically and emotionally.

source: prior service USMC infantry/Combat Marksmanship Trainer/responsible for application of training related to the effects of combat on willing combatants

Well ooh rah, there, knightzero.

When did you serve? US Army 1995-1997, US Marines 1997-2006

I suppose you all take that into account when training male and female Marines? My sister (also a Maine) would kill me if I referred to female Marines as WMs. She friggin' hates that. I guess the Weekend Mattress thing got old. Her service and mine overlapped and we scared our poor mother to death pulling tours in Iraq at the same time.

I remember the crippling fatigue after action. I guess I failed to apply that knowledge to Paddock.

I wonder why he waited so long to kill himself?

Semperfidelis wrote:

I wonder why he waited so long to kill himself?

Maybe he was trying to psyche himself up? It's possible he was having seconds thoughts about suicide when the time came to actually commit it.

I suppose the reality of the situation would come crashing back with the door being breached.

I find it odd that I have been held in position by a small number of shooters for hours on end, but I suppose they all supported one another. Paddock only had himself.

Rapidly evolving situations can be confusing. Even Harris and Klebold had a tentative exit strategy, just one that never would've worked. I can imagine Paddock thinking to himself that he's really doing quite well with this plan of his, and that it might even be possible (due to the lack of police response) to make an escape. I'd be willing to bet the thought ate at his mind, and that at some point continuing to pull the trigger must have felt like spending time he didn't have.

I wouldn't be surprised if he took a break to act on something completely illogical. The notion of an escape, a bite of food, even just a minute to cry and pace. Weirder shit's been documented. Some dude legit put his weapon down and tried to make his boys spaghetti during a firefight in WWI.

I have noticed that "nonsensical" reaction under stress before. I always thought it was an individual quirk, not something well documented in history. Huh. Learn something new.

My fellow Marines would sometimes chuck pennies out into active fields of fire and tell me to go get them (I'm Jewish so this is funny...). But that was more of a silly stress reliever than an atypical response to a combat situation.

I wonder just what Paddock's escape plan was. He had to know he would be hunted to the ends of the Earth. The room was in his name and so were all the guns. Maybe he severely overestimated (he did) the chaos shooting at fuel tanks would cause. Jet fuel just don't blow up that easy.

STK wrote:

Semperfidelis wrote:

I wonder why he waited so long to kill himself?

Maybe he was trying to psyche himself up? It's possible he was having seconds thoughts about suicide when the time came to actually commit it.

He could've also been considering going down via suicide by cop and changed his mind last minute.

knightzero wrote:

Rapidly evolving situations can be confusing. Even Harris and Klebold had a tentative exit strategy, just one that never would've worked. I can imagine Paddock thinking to himself that he's really doing quite well with this plan of his, and that it might even be possible (due to the lack of police response) to make an escape. I'd be willing to bet the thought ate at his mind, and that at some point continuing to pull the trigger must have felt like spending time he didn't have.

I wouldn't be surprised if he took a break to act on something completely illogical. The notion of an escape, a bite of food, even just a minute to cry and pace. Weirder shit's been documented. Some dude legit put his weapon down and tried to make his boys spaghetti during a firefight in WWI. 

Didn't he have explosives (or material to make them) in his car? He could've also been considering heading down there to make or detonate some bombs.

Quote :

Didn't he have explosives (or material to make them) in his car? He could've also been considering heading down there to make or detonate some bombs.

I'd throw this under the "likely as hell" category. Even if he didn't directly think of going down to blow something up, I highly doubt it was possible later in the night for him to forget that he basically wasted those assets.

According to what I've read, this information about the timeline is likely wrong.

The final report claimed that the last shots were fired at around 10:15pm and that "the heat detection indicator from inside room 32-135 detected no further readings from inside of the room" after 10:18pm.

This story says that the information about SWAT members seeing Paddock kill himself was just an assumption that was never confirmed.
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