Las Vegas police officer who hesitated during massacre is fired

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People attend a memorial for Las Vegas Police Officer Charleston Hartfield at Police Memorial Park. Hartfield, who was off duty at the music festival, was killed when Stephen Paddock opened fire.

(Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mourners embrace at a vigil for Las Vegas Police Officer Charleston Hartfield at Police Memorial Park. Hartfield, who was off duty at the music festival, was killed when Stephen Paddock opened fire.

(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

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Veronica Hartfield, widow of slain Las Vegas Police Officer Charleston Hartfield, and their son Ayzayah Hartfield, 15, attend the vigil at Police Memorial Park.

(Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

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People attend a tribute to Las Vegas Police Officer Charleston Hartfield, who was killed in the mass shooting Sunday.

(Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

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Contractor Robert Walker says a prayer after placing flowers and American flag at the scene of a memorial for the victims of the mass shooting on Las Vegas Boulevard near the crime scene.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Shooting victim Paola Bautista, 39, right, of Fontana with her sister Daisy, 34, recounts her experience of running and hiding once they heard gunshots while attending the country music festival. Bautista was shot in the forearm and will require additional surgeries. She and her sister hid in a maintenance trailer for more than 3 hours.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Kaili Berdge of Scottsdale, Ariz. makes sure every candle stays lit at a memorial for the victims of the mass shooting near the crime scene .

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times )

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People stop to pay their respects at a memorial for the victims of the mass shooting on the median off Las Vegas Boulevard near the crime scene.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Connie Lane of Las Vegas holds an American flag with daughter Celestial Olave during a prayer vigil at Mountain Crest Park in Las Vegas.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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People visit a makeshift memorial for shooting victims on Reno Ave and Las Vegas Blvd.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Destiny Albers weeps at a makeshift memorial on Las Vegas Blvd. Albers attended the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert during the attack on Sunday night and one of her friends was struck down by gunfire.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Workers clean up parts of Las Vegas Blvd outside the crime scene.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A prayer vigil in Las Vegas for the victims of the mass shooting.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Matthew Edwards lights candles at a makeshift memorial at Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas for the victims of the mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters and paramedics bow their heads in prayer during a vigil for the victims of the mass shooting at Mountain Crest Park in Las Vegas.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Manhattan Beach Police Chief Eve Irvine, left, consoles police employee Sayeh Kahn after a news conference about the death of police records technician Rachael Parker in the Las Vegas shooting.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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In the presence of her family, Carmen Alegria recounts her harrowing experience escaping the mass shooting that killed 59 and injured more than 520 at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Matthew Edwards gets a hug from a passerby as he lights candles at a makeshift memorial for the victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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People gathered for a candlelight vigil at Town Square in Las Vegas to remember those killed and injured in the mass shooting.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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University of Nevada, Las Vegas, students observe a moment of silence for the victims of the mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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University of Nevada, Las Vegas, students attend a candlelight vigil for the shooting victims.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A candlelight vigil at Town Square in Las Vegas to remember the shooting victims.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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UNLV students pick up candles for a vigil for the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.) hugs clergy members as they lead the Guardian Angel Cathedral congregation for a prayer event to honor the victims of the mass shooting.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Members of the Guardian Angel Cathedral congregation embrace after a prayer event to honor the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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People attend a candlelight vigil at Las Vegas City Hall for the victims of the mass shooting.

(Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

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Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo updates the toll from the mass shooting to 59 killed and 527 injured during a news conference Las Vegas.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Susan Stafford, left, of Media Fellowship International consoles a resident in prayer after the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

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Relatives of victims from the mass shooting embrace outside a family assistance center in Las Vegas.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Flowers are left behind for victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Tourists visit the crime scene, cordoned off by officials as the investigation of the mass shooting continues in Las Vegas.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gunfire Sunday night in Las Vegas. The shooter was firing from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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Las Vegas police work on a street outside the grounds of the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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Drapes billow from broken windows Monday at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Police say gunman Stephen Paddock targeted festival-goers from the resort and was found dead inside a hotel room.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

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President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, participate in a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House for victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting.

(Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images)

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President Donald Trump makes a statement about the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

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Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo gives a news update early Monday on the mass shooting at a country music festival. Authorities say at least 58 people are dead and more than 500 injured.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A man lays on top of a woman as others flee the Route 91 Harvest country music festival grounds after a active shooter was reported on Sunday in Las Vegas.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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People lie on the ground at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after a gunman targeted the event from a nearby upper-story hotel room.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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A wounded person is transported on a wheelbarrow as authorties respond during a mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday.

(Chase Stevens / Associated Press)

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People take cover at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gunfire Sunday night in Las Vegas. The shooter was firing from the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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People run and take cover at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gunfire.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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People tend to the wounded outside the festival grounds after the mass shooting late Sunday.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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A man in a wheelchair is taken away from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gunfire was heard.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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People run for cover at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after a shooter targeted the event from Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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People carry a person at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gunfire was heard in Las Vegas.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after the event was targeted by a gunman shooting from a nearby hotel.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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People tend to the wounded outside the festival grounds after a shooting near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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People hug and seek cover at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival as the shooting scene unfolds in Las Vegas.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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A cowboy hat lays in the street late Sunday after gunfire hits a country music festival in Las Vegas.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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A woman sits on a curb at the scene of the shooting outside of the Route 91 Harvest country music festival along the Las Vegas Strip.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

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A man takes cover at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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Police officers advise people to take cover near the scene of the mass shooting near Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

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Medics treat people injured in a mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday.

(Chase Stevens / Associated Press)

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People take cover from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gunfire Sunday night in Las Vegas. The shooter was firing from the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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Police run to cover at the scene of a shooting near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

(John Locher / AP)

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A police officer takes cover behind a police vehicle during a shooting near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

(John Locher / AP)

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A gropu carries a person at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after a mass shooting by a gunman from a nearby hotel.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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A police officer runs along a sidewalk on the Las Vegas Strip late Sunday.

(John Locher / Associated Press)

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Las Vegas police sweep through a convention center area at the Tropicana Las Vegas, during a lockdown following an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Strip.

(Chase Stevens / Associated Press)

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People run from the country music festival, which was targeted by a gunman.

(David Becker / Getty Images)

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Crime scene investigators stand by a body along Las Vegas’ Reno Avenue on Monday morning, in the aftermath of the mass shooting that left at least 58 dead and more than 500 injured.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A body lays covered in the driveway of the Desert Rose Resort on Reno Avenue on Monday morning after the mass shooting the night before.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Personal items covered in blood sit are discarded on Koval Lane.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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A curtain blows out of a broken window at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, from where a gunman targeted a a country music festival across the street on the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday night.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Law enforcement officers cordon off a crime scene on Reno Avenue on Monday after a gunman opened fire from an upper story of the Mandalay Bay hotel on a nearby country music festival the night before.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Law enforcement officers in Las Vegas on Monday cordon off a crime scene after a gunman opened fire from an upper story hotel room on a country music festival the night before.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

By Associated Press

July 3, 2019 6:20 AM PT

Reporting from LAS VEGAS —

Authorities have confirmed the dismissal of a veteran Las Vegas police officer who froze in the hallway of a Strip hotel during a 2017 mass shooting as a gunman on the floor above opened fire on a country music festival.

Officer Larry Hadfield, spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, said Tuesday night that Officer Cordell Hendrex was fired March 20. Hadfield did not offer additional details or answer questions regarding an internal review of the actions of Hendrex and other officers that night.

Police union president Steve Grammas told the Associated Press in an email that Hendrex had been fired because of his actions during the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting.

Hendrex acknowledged in a police report that he was “terrified with fear” as the gunman above killed 58 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

“I froze right there in the middle of the hall, for how long I can’t say,” he wrote in the report.

Police body camera video released by the department shows Hendrex, along with a rookie officer and three hotel security officers, waiting in the hallway of the 31st floor in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino for about five minutes before moving to a stairwell leading to the 32nd floor, where the gunman was raining bullets onto the crowd above.

They remained in the stairwell for at least 15 minutes, when the video clip ends.

A phone call to a publicly listed number for Hendrex was not answered Tuesday night.

Grammas told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which first reported Hendrex’s firing, that the union does not believe the officer should have been fired and is fighting to get him reinstated.

News of Hendrex’s firing comes on the heels of the firing of four police officers in Florida as a result of their inaction to the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where a gunman killed 17 people.

Las Vegas police officer who hesitated during massacre is fired

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