Las Vegas Metropolitan police officer Cordell Hendrex, was one floor below Paddock firing off rounds into a crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas when he radioed in to dispatch to confirm he’d located Paddock and was beneath him on the 31st floor.
But instead of taking the stairs or an elevator up one floor and entering the room to confront and eliminate Paddock, officer Hendrex chose to wait instead as dozens more were fatally shot outside on the ground.
Officer Hendrex did the same thing Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resource deputy Scot Peterson did as children inside the school were slaughtered: he cowered down and took cover.
Hendrex calls it “retreating” in his October 1 police report about the incident.
Hendrix writes that he, Varsin, his day-two trainee, along with three armed Mandalay Bay security guards were located on the 31st floor of the hotel where they could hear gunshots emanating from the 32nd floor as Paddock continued shooting defenseless people attending a music festival below.
In his report, Hedrex recalls how he “froze up” and was too “terrified with fear” to intervene, so he “retreated” with his trainee and the security guards.
“Once we were near the end of the hall we heard a volley of automatic rifle fire start.The sound of the shots were so very loud and reverberated through the hall like thunder all around and above us. Above us! I could tell that it was coming from the floor above us on 32. I then told everyone to get back and we retreated a few doors down from the end of the hall. I know I hesitated and remember being terrified with fear and I think I froze right there in the middle of the hall for how long I can’t say. I do know that at 2212 hours I got on the radio and told dispatch that I was inside the Mandalay Bay on the 31st floor and that I could hear the automatic fire coming from the floor above us.”
“I once again hesitated as the shots were still being fired from the 32ndfloor and I remember saying another prayer in my head for God to keep us safe. I did not know what to do next.”
“Hesitated.”
Instead of actually trying to help people by taking out the shooter a floor above him, Hendrex prayed for them.
Meanwhile, people were being slaughtered like animals across the street below.
A total of 58 people were killed.
Over 400 were wounded.
Today, Hendrex still works as field training officer training new police officers for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, according to the Baltimore Post Examiner.
Sheriff Joe Lombardo has refused to answer why Hendrex failed to enter Paddock’s room since the day of the October 1 shooting.
Interestingly, Hendrex’s wife, Jennifer Howk Hendrex, posted to Facebook on October 2, calling her husband a hero in several Facebook posts following the massacre.
She even writes her hero husband “ran to gunfire” even though her husband admits quite frankly to being a coward through his own words written in his own police report.
On October 19, 2017 Jennifer Howk Hendrex, along with another LVMPD officer’s wife, posted a video to youtube titled ‘Podcast: Episode 4′ where the two police wives discuss what their husbands did during the Las Vegas shooting.
In the video, Jennifer talks about her husband “Cory.”
“All we know is their truth.”
But Jennifer has since removed her Facebook posts about her husband being a hero, along with Episode 4 from her YouTube channel Yarning with the Hadlock Girls.
Cordell Hendrex not only works as an officer for the Las Vegas Metro Police Department, he still works training new officers.