0:00 If I shut my brain off for the day, even if someone said, "I just sent you an email." I'm like, "F███, I got to turn it back on." [laughter] >> Well, maybe he just doesn't shut his brain down for the day. >> That's like adrenaline through the roof. Just random spikes throughout. Like that's that's what the weed's for. >> It's Yeah. >> Welcome back to Careful Boys. Today we're going to talk about You keep calling it One October, which I think is way cool sounding. Uh but the obviously the very sad and serious um Vegas shooting. >> Uh >> that was the one at the country concert. That one. >> Yeah. Mandalay Bay and the shooter the alleged shooter was like Steven Paddock or something like that. Yeah. And there was some crazy stuff that went down. >> Um >> and there's a lot of theories about that day, but can you tell us about that day from your perspective? Yeah, that was a
0:51 uh that was an interesting and very very long day for me uh being on the SWAT team back then. And I remember getting the call um late at night. I can't remember if it was somewhere around like 10:00, 11 o'clock at night or something. Get we get our our alert and I got the alert says active shooter Mandalay Bay being route. So I'm getting ready to go to bed. I'm laying in bed with my wife and I was like she goes I got to go to work. She goes, "What's going on?" I says, "Active shooter at Mandalay Bay." She goes, "Oh my god, you know, be careful." And I said, "Yeah, I appreciate it, but like I was saying earlier, I was like, I I know that uh I'm 20 to 25 minutes lights and sirens to get there." So, I was like, "Okay, well, I'm definitely going to get there. I'm going to go as quick as I can, but the patrol officers should handle this prior to our arrival. It should be done." I have a question. When you're when you're at home in bed,
1:41 right, and you get the call, you put on your clothes and you have your SWAT everything gear at the house and then you go >> We have uh we have take-h home trucks 24/7 that has all our gear and everything in it. So, we drive those things 24/7. >> Oh, so you you don't have to go to the station first. >> You can respond from anywhere. Yeah. You go straight there. Now, we'll send the new guys to the station to pick up like the armored trucks, what we call the Bearecats, and uh we'll have them pick up that and any other like uh random gear for our reserve guys who don't have take-home cars, who are just on a reserve capacity as far as SWAT. Um but yeah, I'm in my take-home car and and I'm going there. Lights and sirens. Already got everything good to go from there. >> Like this is I guess um what like maybe you won't even know now, but I feel like getting that call must be like PTSD inducing. Maybe even later on cuz I feel like for me if I shut my brain off for
2:31 the day, even if someone said, "I just sent you an email." I'm like, "F███, I gotta turn it back on." >> Well, maybe he just doesn't shut his brain down for the day. >> That's the PTSD part where if you're always on, even when you're about to be in bed with your wife and just chill and like watch your favorite TV show and all of a sudden you have to have the ability to go on like >> like is that's like adrenaline through the roof. Just random spikes throughout. Like that's that's got to be crazy, right? >> Yeah, it is. The adrenaline uh spike is is huge and then after you're done, the adrenaline dump is is huge as well. Um but yeah, it's like I have a I'm pretty good at turning it off when I get home, but knowing that when I get the call, it's like, hey, it's it's back ramped up to 100 uh immediately. >> That's crazy. >> And you know, >> that's what the weed's for. >> It's Yeah. Um no comments. >> Once I'm in my pajamas, I'm like, I
3:22 didn't get the phone call. I don't know, dude. So, [laughter] well, that's the thing is that when when when you join SWAT, you know, we want, like I was talking about earlier, you want that mentality. You want that critical thinker. But you want the guy who like I want to be a part of every major incident that goes on in the valley. I want to be there. I want to help. That's why I joined. That's why I joined the police. That's why I joined SWAT was because I want to be a part of this incident. I want to be there to help. >> By far the biggest one in the last like 20 years. >> Yeah. Absolutely. This is by far the biggest call that >> So as you're as you're headed down there, like are you hearing things from the strip? >> Yeah. So I'm heading down. So I So So even before I leave my house, I was like, "Hey, be careful." And then she's getting text messages from her friends saying, "Hey, is Richie at Route 91?" And I'm like, "What the ████ is Route 91?" I was like, "No, I'm going to Mandalay Bay." But Route 91 was the name of the concert that was going on.
4:13 >> Oh, I see. >> So they're like, "Hey, is Richie at Route 91?" She goes, "No, he's he's home, but he's going to he's going to a he's going to act shoot at Mandalay Bay." And they're like, "Oh, it's the same thing, I think." I'm like, "Okay, whatever." So, um, so I kiss my wife. I kiss my wife. Hey, see you later. And I get into my car and as I'm going, remember in my in my mind I'm going as quick as I can, but I'm like, "This ████ is going to be handled by the time we get there. Armed security and patrol officers are going to handle it on scene." And then we're getting information that, hey, it's still active. There's multiple casualties to include police officers and it's still ongoing. We had further information that not only is it still ongoing but there's a possible IED at the valet at the New York New York as well. So I'm thinking okay this is a Mumbai style terrorist attack like multiple locations type thing is what's going through my mind.
5:03 So when I talk about mindset of of SWAT operators and police officers, normally normal people and when I tell this story at the when I tell the story at the academy to the recruits, I always tell them like there's something screwed up in your mind to want to do this job. Like you are ████ up emotionally to want to do this job. I'm ████ up emotionally to want to do this job. And why? Because normal people when they hear that numerous casualties still going on, possible bombs, cops are dead, too. Normal people be like, "Oo, me slow down. That doesn't sound like I want to be a part of." But me, I tried to go faster at that point. I was like, "Holy ████ we got to ████ get there. We got to solve this." So, as we're getting there, uh NHP, Highway Patrol, did a phenomenal job at blocking off all the uh all the freeways and stuff. So, we
5:54 had the entire freeway open for us to go. Um so, so we're getting there. And as we get there, we stage. I I arrive on my team at our at our staging location. We're getting ready to go into Mandalay Bay at that time. And I I try to keep things a little bit light-hearted, you know, being uh you know, a a tactical guy on the team, a planner, a a leader to the guys. I I equate the leadership role in tactical situations to a stor on an airplane is what I tell them. It's like you're sitting on an airplane and you feel and you're nervous and you feel like turbulence. You feel the airplane kind of going on. You're like, "Oh my god, what's going on?" But then you look at the stor. They're still up. They live this, you know? They're still up. They're still handing out drains, collecting trash. They're fine. You're like, "Oh, sort aren't worried. I'm not ████ worried about this then." But then once this plane starts shaking and they're like, "Soresis, take your seats." And they ████ put the cart tray away. You're like, "Oh, f███." You
6:45 know what's going on? So I I equate the I equate the the the team leader aspect of of a SWAT team or any type of critical incident law enforcement to a sortist to where to younger guys they can't look at me and see that I'm shook but inside I'm I'm nervous >> and you're handing them diet coke coffee diet coke. >> Yeah it's coffee diet coke. Yeah. Yeah. You know trash. I mean I I uh I had uh my wife had has a gay friend who says I wish I was a store only for this only for the fact that I just get to call people trash without even doing I just hand out I just hold up a trash bag with trash. Trash. So I just called him trash without even knowing it. But >> [laughter] >> uh so but so we're on scene and we're getting dressed out. God damn it. We're getting ready to uh getting ready to deploy and I'm trying to keep things light-hearted. So I look at one of my one of my friends and I'm a big movie reference guy and he's a big movie reference guy and I look at him and I
7:35 just grab my rifle and I said, "This is it. Don't get scared now." >> That's sick. Home Alone. >> Home Alone reference. You know, he laughs. He goes, "You're ████ stupid." But it went from him being to like, you know, to breaking that tunnel vision of being like to make seeing him laugh and smile to be like, "Hey, we ████ got this, you know, don't worry about it." Um, so, uh, we get there. Um, and then at that time, the situation now before we make entry into Delay Bay, uh, the situation is now kind of sterile. We've already had a couple SWAT guys who, uh, got there before us with some patrol guys. They went up, they explosive breached the door, went in and found the guy dead. Um, so >> is it true that there was a woman in the room too? >> That I have not heard that. >> But he committed suicide. Is that why he was? >> That is what is been told. >> Okay.
8:25 >> So, um, any conspiracy theories that go off on there? I only can say on behalf of what I've seen, what I heard, and what I lived from what I from what I've seen, what I've heard, what I've lived is that there was one shooter and there was nothing else going on. That's it. How he died, I have no idea. >> Were you a part of the group that breached? >> No, I wasn't part of the group that breached. The the guy who uh the the main SWAT guy who did that, he's retired now. Um he he's an absolute stud. He works on a different SWAT team than I do. Um but that's kind of like an all call for all SWAT teams to where we like where I said Avengers assemble like everyone comes together for that type of thing. And uh he got there along with some patrol guys went up there explosive breach the door found the dude dead. But you can imagine but that's what we were prepared to do. we were getting ready to go straight to the scene. They're like, "No, hold off. That's that seems to be sterile at this moment. We have some auxiliary duties. We're getting calls of
9:16 active shooters at the Bellagio at this time." So, like, okay, cool. So, we rack up and we go over to Delagio and we start clearing the Blio casino floor and everything else, but everything kind of seems normal at that time. So, we start talking with security. They're like, "No, there's no active shooter here." Um, it's uh what all these calls were were people running from the event to different casinos. Some of them were shot, some of them saying they were being shot and the security taking that as a taking that information and assuming that that there's a shooter on property. Hence the multiple calls at different locations and stuff. The IED at New York, New York ended up being uh a false call, end up being like some speaker wires that someone freaked out about. Um, and that's it. So, we uh spent some time on the strip shutting that down, making sure there was no other events that were going on. We were there for a couple hours. Now the investigation part starts coming up. So
10:07 they tell uh me and my team like, "Hey, we want you to go to Mosquite, which is the the north city up by the Utah border. This is where the suspect lives. You need to serve the search warrant on his house. Make sure the house is clear so investigators can start searching it for evidence and motives and and everything else. By the way, the house is possibly booby trapped with explosives." >> So we're like, "Hm, okay, challenge accepted." Uh, we convoy up, we drive up there, we we get together, we make our plan, and we start kind of tearing the house apart like we were talking about earlier. Do >> you treat the house as if it's empty, or you got to go there and treat as if there's someone already? >> Always treat it as if there's someone inside. >> And I always tell the guys when we're training, he's like, never be surprised to find somebody. Never be never be surprised to find someone inside of a car, inside of a house, or whatever, because otherwise, what are you searching for? Like, what are you
10:57 looking for? Like, you should never be surprised to find someone. like if we're clearing this area and then I come around this couch like, "Oh my god, there you are." But what what did you expect? So you're looking for that person. You know, you should always be in that mindset. So, but we're like, "Okay, we have these big armored trucks that are that are like 22 to 25,000 lbs of of steel that can that a 50 caliber can't even pierce." And we're like, "Okay, well, if this house explodes, let's at least have the truck there to to shield us. So, let's start driving the truck through the garage, through the doors and stuff to see if that sets off any type of explosion." It didn't. Then we send our robots through with our monitors and gauges and whatnot. Nothing in the air. Nothing's tripping it off. Okay, now it's our time. We're not finding anybody inside with the robots, with the technology. Now it's our turn to go inside and manually check ourselves. So being inside that guy's house was very eerie feeling. Um it was just a
11:50 clean, organized house. and in his garage. He did have um lots of uh lots of ammunition in his garage, but that's the only thing that I saw from my aspect of it. Um and then we hang out down there for a little bit, clear the scene, and by this time we're 14 16 hours into into the day. >> And uh >> starting at like 10:00. >> Starting at like around 10:00 at night. Yeah. And then we're going through the night. >> Yeah. Just it was just straight through. Damn. >> And then uh and then I I remember just I just driving home and it's a long drive for me. It's like an hour, you know. So, we're driving home normal now and just trying to stay awake, but I'm listening to the radio and everyone was on the radio was talking about it and everyone's talking about I I I remember like it was like when uh September 11th happened and I remember I was driving to school at that day and I remember every radio show was talking about Howard Stern was talking about that's when he was on regular radio out here and but
12:40 the same thing now but it's one October and I just remember hearing the body count being out there and I just just started crying. I was just like this is ████ insane. like just just that adrenaline dump that that we had as well. Um just just started hitting me and I was just like and never I have all my family calling me and asking. I didn't accept any phone calls like I'm not talking to anybody right now. I just text, hey, I'm okay heading home now. I'll talk to you later, you know, cuz I just had to process everything. I'm just I just want to get home to my wife and kids and just >> be thankful that I'm not one of the casualties. Be thankful that it was nothing more than it was. But at the same time like this was an insane event to be a part of on all aspects. You know I I consider it like three phases. The Mandalay Bay phase, the Bellagio phase, the mosqu phase and just a long draining emotional day to where like even when we were done like normally we debrief, you
13:31 know, after every warrant service we like, hey, what did we do right? What did we do wrong? What can we do different next time? There's no holds barred. Like, dude, you ████ up on this, this, this, this. Like, yeah, you did this. Hey, you did good. Will you get a job on this? But we focus on the negatives. That debrief was like, "Hey, we'll talk about this later. Get home to your families. We'll see you later." >> Yeah, that's it. >> Was anyone like, "You used the wrong ████ home alone quote, brother." >> So, no, [laughter] it was actually it was actually it was actually really good um on that aspect. But I'm always trying to cheer the guys up in certain ways and just just joke around. When it's go time, it's go time. But I can always say something or do something to make someone a little bit less at ease like, "Oh, ████ Richie. He's one of the leaders on here. He's one of the tactical guys. Like, he doesn't seem worried about this. Neither should I." >> Nice. you know. So, >> was there anything in Paddock's house that was off to you or or strange or unusual? >> Not really. No, it was just like I said,
14:21 it was just very well organized >> cuz the rumors obviously is that he was like some kind of drug or a gun runner or something like that at the time. That was >> I didn't say anything like that. It was just a wellorganized house, singlestory house and a golf community and up there and >> like a gated community. >> Wasn't gated. Um, as far as I remember, I can't remember if it was gated or not, but uh, I remember being single story and just being very clean and organized, like almost like neurotic clean and organized. >> Did you ever go into the Mandalay Bay room where he was at? >> No, I was not up there. So, >> even even after like do you know buddies who did or anything? >> I have buddies who did. Yeah, buddies were up there like the the SWAT guy was there. I'm a good friend with him and a couple of the patrol guys. Talked with them and um everything you see in the pictures is everything they described. So, there was nothing uh you know, like I said, could there be conspir? There's
15:11 always going to be conspiracy theories about what's going on and everything. The way the guy died, they're saying suicide. Could it be? Yes. No. Maybe. So, was there another person? Not the information I have. Could have been. Maybe, maybe not. But this dude did have video cameras set up in the hallways and on this door. And ████ it was a huge suite, you know, huge corner suite. And uh it's I'm not sure what they do. I don't know if they completely like blocked off that room now to where it's not available, but I know I know people who work at Mandalay Bay and they're like, "You wouldn't believe how many people request to stay in that room." >> That's crazy. >> So, like just those >> That's hella weird. >> Yeah. They like they were want to sleep in that room. >> Did you guys or hear about uh like what his motive was? >> Mm-m. >> No. >> Nope. And I, you know, I don't
16:02 >> Sometimes the motive is just to to kill people. >> Sure. Yeah. >> Sometimes that's that's just not good enough for for general society. They want, well, why did he want to? Well, sometimes you don't get a why. >> You know, I always yell at my wife, you know, sometimes we're watching a show or we're watching a TV show or a movie and she's like, I don't like the way that panned out. It wasn't happy. Like, well, not everything is going to be a happy ending with everything, you know, except for a few massage parlors. Um but so [laughter] >> we're going to cut and you let us know which ones. >> Yep. Yeah.
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