Is it, or is it not the case, that the windows in all Las Vegas hotels are unable to be opened? I believe this is to prevent suicide attempts.
I am further given to understand that all these windows have sensors, and that as soon as one is broken, hotel security are instantly aware of exactly which room the breakage has occurred in.
What the media are reporting is that the “smoke sensors” were the means by which the room was pinpointed, which obviously would delay the detection quite significantly.
No doubt the subsequent inquiry will reveal more details.
ISTM that it’s pretty rare for those windows to break/be broken, and such a detection system would represent an unwise cost, especially given that the risk is confined to the occupants of the room with the broken window (as opposed to a fire in a room, which puts the entire hotel at risk). Can you point to a cite anywhere on the internet that asserts this to be a widespread practice, or even that such a system existed specifically at the Mandalay Bay hotel?
I have never seen or heard of a break detection system other then looking up and seeing a cracked window.
ETA: There are any number of hotels in Vegas with opening windows. Indeed, with terraces and balconies. Those rooms are in high demand at places like Cosmopolitan.
The windows don’t open mainly because it is cheaper to build and cheaper to run the climate control if people cannot open windows. I have been in hotels that turn off the AC if the sliding glass doors to the patio or balcony are opened.
Whether the Mandalay Bay had the sensors fitted, i confess I do not know … somebody who should know told me that they had, but that is anecdotal.
Contrary to some opinions expressed above, it is by no means exorbitantly expensive to fit these detectors …one per room (not per window) is all that is required … in the overall scheme of things the cost is peanuts.
I’ve been in a few Vegas hotels that had ground level rooms with windows facing public streets/sidewalks. I can see them putting them in on those first story rooms just to prevent break-ins.
I stayed at the MGM signature towers and it had a very wide open balcony, with a couple thick metal railings, thats about it. Completely open air. Fun to have sex out there. =)
Other hotels, I imagine have similar setups, Not sure if the Luxor has anything like that, but a few have balconies from what i’ve seen.
They are hypothesizing he used something like this, and hammer-like device sounds like a fair description to me. The pointed tip is better for breaking through tempered safety glass in cars, or possibly hotel windows.
It’s a class of objects that also includes: axes, splitting mauls, large crowbars, some medieval weaponry, mallets, etc… It is rather common here for pedants to derail a thread arguing over minutiae like that.
Hotel staff were alerted to the sounds of breaking glass, giving them a general idea of the floor and wing) . They got the call pretty much as soon as that happenned. Someone was straight onto it… "hey theres glass raining down here. madman breaking window up above ? ". However, they were also alerted to the sounds of automatic gun fire soon after, and that was echoing around the streets, and they couldn’t know if the glass was broken from the inside, or by gunfire, for example. Hotel staff may have been watching all the video cameras in the corridoors and lifts, and stair ways . eg to disable lift , to block stair way, to tell guests to go back to their room and lock themselves in etc,
But shooter never left the room so hotel staff didnt locate him.
Plenty of alarms would have gone off. eg guests would be smoking inside…
So smoke alarms aren’t going to be totally sure to pinpoint the gunman.