Why Were Guests Locked out of Hotels During the Shooting?

During the recent horrible shooting near Mandalay Bay, some friends of mine who were vacationing there and staying at Bellagio told us that the guests were not allowed to go back to their rooms and the casino was locked down. My friends had to stay outside overnight! They were also informed that other casinos were locked down at the same time and hotel guests were not allowed back in. None of this was reported on the news. What was the reason registered guests were not allowed back in? I would think it would be a safer place than being forced to stay overnight out on the streets!

This question came in soon after the shooting and we've been trying to answer it ever since. As you might imagine, we got the runaround on it.

MGM Resorts International bounced us among several PR and media-relations departments before we were bank-shot over to Las Vegas Metro, which instigated the lockdowns. A Metro public-relations officer informed us that guests were locked out “for their own safety,” then promised a lengthier written response, for which we're still waiting. His answer, such as it was, begs the question of why hotel guests were supposedly safer out on the Las Vegas Strip, which had become a killing zone, than in their rooms.

Metro’s imposition of the lockdowns seems to have been at least partly in response to reports of gunfire originating at other Strip casinos.

One thing we can say for sure is that the lockdowns weren’t hushed up in the media. Our "Stiffs & Georges" blog, gleaning its information from multiple sources, was reporting them the morning after the tragedy.

This was, of course, such a horrific event for everyone involved that Monday-morning quarterbacking is inevitable. But in the heat and confusion of the moment, the authorities were in total reaction mode. That can, also inevitably, lead to questionable decisions, of which locking guests out of their hotels was certainly one.

We can only trust that lessons were learned and, in the unthinkable possibility that a crisis event of this magnitude ever happens again, we hope and pray that the response will be better for them.

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dasminis Jan-15-2018

part 1

My husband and I were also staying at the Bellagio that fateful night.  We were caught up in the lockdown at the Flamingo. A bit after 1:30 am, when it was pretty clear it was one person and they were down, we decided to make our way back to our hotel room. Turns out, the lockdown at that time ended at the Flamingo (security was still blocking the exits). We walked thru to Margaritaville to get out to the strip and went further up the street to cross over.
 At that time, (1:45am or so) Bellagio security was letting hotel guests(only) in. Was surreal seeing the casino empty. Got to the elevators and there was a crowd. Alarmed, I asked if we could go to our room. Yes was the answer. Turns out that’s where they gathered the stragglers for their own safety. If I remember correctly, at that time they thought they were looking for two possibly rigged vehicles in the hotel parking garages (don’t think we the public knew that at the time).
 So, guests were NOT locked out all night.

dasminis Jan-15-2018

pt 2

But people were still not allowed to leave several of the hotels, Bellagio included, at that time(1:45am). We heard them say that they had food and water available down the hall for anyone there as we got on the elevator.
It was amazing how much security suddenly became visible and how calm things were. We only found out what was going on by watching the news on the tv in the Flamingo’s food court after we tried to leave about 11:30 pm. We are returning to Vegas in a few weeks.

Debbie

O2bnVegas Jan-15-2018

lockdown

A friend and her friends were returning to Caesars by cab from Rio. As it turned out this was shortly after the time of the shooting. They noticed the unusual vehicle activity on the Strip.  They arrived at Caesars and were allow in and to their rooms, no problem.  Perhaps they arrived before any 'lockdown' was activated.

Gary Thompson Jan-15-2018

Lockdown

To me a very reasonable response was to lockdown the casino's, allowing patrons only to enter and I would assume being checked over as they came in.  This way security casino security can do their job's of protecting existing patrons and looking for more potential threats.  So much easier to look for potential threats when in lockdown than under normal operations with people coming and going and shopping and carrying large bags and hurrying to meet someone.  Much easier to cross someone off the list of potential bad guys when people have fear all over their face.

Roy Furukawa Jan-15-2018

Limit the suspects

I think they did it to limit the suspects. Because they did not know who, where, how many shooters there were and which hotels, they needed to sweep the hotels and letting more people in would make it harder for Metro, not easier. In a very odd sense, I think their thought was that you were innocent of the crime by being outside of a hotel rather than inside of one.

Question of the Day - 15 January 2018

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