A Las Vegas police officer who froze one floor beneath the gunman during the Route 91 Harvest festival massacre has been fired, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Officer Cordell Hendrex left the police department nearly 18 months after the release of body camera footage showing Hendrex holding his position in a hallway one floor beneath the killer for nearly five minutes as rounds continually sprayed into the crowd of country music fans below on Oct. 1, 2017. Police union president Steve Grammas confirmed that Hendrex had been fired in connection with his actions on the night of the attack. “We do not believe Cordell should have been terminated,” Grammas said.
He pointed to an internal affairs investigation that he said was launched only after body camera footage of Hendrex’s hesitation started circulating in the media. “In our opinion, until it came up in the news and they started getting some heat is when they made this decision.” In his officer report, Hendrex admitted to being scared during the shooting. The report and records like it were released to the Review-Journal only after the newspaper and other media organizations sued for their release. “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,” Hendrex wrote. Grammas said Tuesday that on the night of the attack, “all of our officers were up against something that nobody has been up against before.”