There were at least two police officers who got to the 32nd floor by approximately 10:17, less than 20 minutes after the gunman fired his initial shots at Campos, and about 12 minutes after he started shooting out of the windows.
The scene they found when they got there was of a wounded Campos, a long hallway and a door that a bunch of bullets had been shot through. Also, by the time they got there, the shooter had stopped shooting out of the window.
Because there was no shooting out of the windows anymore, and because the shooter had obviously shot down the hall at the security guard, the cops secured the scene and called for a SWAT team.
They apparently didn’t actually breach the room and go in until approximately 72 minutes after the shooting began. But again, the gunman had stopped shooting long before that.
If you want to criticize them for not charging down the hall and busting down the door right away, that’s fine. Personally, I think I would hesitate to do that, if it was me, and I knew the guy wasn’t shooting out the window anymore and may be sitting there waiting to shoot at me down the hall.
If you want to say it shouldn’t take them an hour after they arrived to secure the scene, set up the SWAT team and go in, that’s fine. That’s a different argument, to me.
But there were cops were on scene within 20 minutes, and the shooting had stopped by then. Considering the chaos outside (including multiple conflicting reports of shooter location, other shootings, etc.), and the fact that (I think) they had to run up 32 flights of stairs, I think the on-scene time was fairly reasonable.
All of the above is based on the information the authorities have released so far, and so it is subject to change.
I think the police performed well. They were on the floor 12 minutes after the concert shooting started. This was despite conflicting information about the location of the shooter.
If one of the two Mandalay employees on the floor had talked to police directly, it seems reasonable to believe that officers would have been able to arrive in less than 12 minutes and before Paddock quit on his own.
At that point, outgunned police officers would have had a tough choice to make. But that didn’t happen, in large part, because of the delay by the hotel employees.
“Personally, I think I would hesitate to do that, if it was me”
That would be a suicide mission.
Joe cop has a vest that protects against 9mm, .40 and .45 bullets. MAYBE even .357. He is not issued a vest to protect against rifle fire.