The Worst Mass Shooting In US History

Summary

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Law Enforcement Talk: True Crime and Trauma Stories

Episode: The Worst Mass Shooting In US History

Host: John "Jay" Wiley

Guest: Retired Las Vegas Metro Police Captain Josh Bitzko

Date: December 3, 2025

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Overview

In this gripping episode, Host John "Jay" Wiley interviews retired Las Vegas Metro Police Captain Josh Bitzko, a key responder at the Mandalay Bay mass shooting—America's deadliest. Through firsthand narrative, Bitzko discusses the chaos of the night, the weight of rapid decision-making, the aftermath on law enforcement and his personal journey toward healing. The episode offers a sobering look behind the badge, blending true crime insights with raw, human impact.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Career Background & Transition to Civilian Life

• Early Career: Bitzko started as a cadet at 18, spent 24 years with Las Vegas Metro PD, and served extensively in patrol and K9 units, culminating in a captaincy.
• Transitioning from Policing: Both guest and host reflect on the emotional difficulty of leaving law enforcement, citing the loss of camaraderie and sense of purpose.

  “I still miss being a cop. Miss wearing the uniform and talking to people.” – Josh Bitzko [04:39]

2. K9 Unit Reflections

• Becoming a Handler: Bitzko describes moving from patrol to K9 after realizing undercover work wasn't for him.
• Canine Partnerships: Deep bonds with K9 partners—who also become family members—are highlighted, including the challenges faced by both handlers and dogs upon retirement.

  “I spent more time with my canine partner than my kids or my wife...I had to build that trust with him.” – Josh Bitzko [08:19]
  “Retirement's not just hard for us, it's hard for the dog.” – Josh Bitzko [10:28]

3. The Mandalay Bay Shooting: Scene and Response

• Initial Chaos: Bitzko recounts the swirling confusion as officers tried to pinpoint the shooter's location, compounded by the echoing gunshots and vastness of the area.

  “When I arrived, it was pure chaos... You can't pinpoint, based on sound alone, where the shooting's coming from.” – Josh Bitzko [17:43]

• Shooter’s Setup: The shooter assembled an arsenal of 23 weapons over a week, established surveillance with cameras, and rigged his environment for maximum harm and delay of police response.

  “He'd taken about a week to assemble an arsenal... set up cameras out front to see our response... began shooting down into the crowd.” – Josh Bitzko [14:57]

• Rapid, High-Stakes Decision Making: Officers made split-second, life-or-death choices, often with little information, balancing the need to neutralize the threat with concerns for team safety.

  “You don't know how you're emotionally going to handle something until you're in that situation.” – Josh Bitzko [14:20] “I had to make 100 decisions... I didn't want to make the wrong decision and get somebody killed.” – Josh Bitzko [24:59]

4. The Room Entry

• Advancing to the Suspect’s Room: Bitzko describes the difficulty of traversing the labyrinthine hotel and assessing incomplete intelligence in real time.
• Facing Potential Explosives: Officers encountered a room service cart with wires, fearing an explosive trap.

  “We could see wires going from the room service cart into the room...our whole team thought it was an explosive device waiting for us.” – Josh Bitzko [27:41]

• Forced Entry and Aftermath: The team breaching the room found the shooter deceased by suicide, surrounded by evidence and firearms, and then cleared adjacent rooms.

  “We make entry in the room and start to clear it out... find the suspect deceased on the ground with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.” – Josh Bitzko [31:28]

5. Personal Impact and Healing

• The Lingering Toll: Bitzko admits to the heavy psychological aftermath, shared by all first responders present.

  “Everybody that went up to that floor came down a different human. And a thousand... officers that responded... were changed.” – Josh Bitzko [36:35]

• Therapy and Processing: He began therapy in 2020—four years after the incident—which became an ongoing process to manage trauma and loss amid personal tragedies.

  “The weight got so heavy... I finally sat down with a mental health professional... It’s something that I still do to this day.” – Josh Bitzko [39:53]

• Rejecting ‘Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda’: Both guest and host stress the importance of not dwelling on perceived mistakes in traumatic incidents.

  “You're responding the best you can to somebody that had a lot of time to prepare... One thing is learning from mistakes, and another is not dwelling on them.” – Josh Bitzko [37:47]

6. Post-Retirement: Advocacy and Training

• Wellness Leadership: Before retirement, Bitzko established a wellness bureau for Metro PD employees, focusing on officer mental health.
• Consulting & Book: He now teaches law enforcement and business leaders about resilience, courage, and leadership. His book, The Courage to Live, aims to provide a realistic blueprint for surviving trauma and recovering—addressed to both law enforcement and civilians.

  “I wanted to create a blueprint for anybody that experiences hard things...not just law enforcement.” – Josh Bitzko [41:31]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you want.” – John J. Wiley [19:02]
• “Having the willingness to show up and do the job— that was the most important thing...in this kind of event.” – Josh Bitzko [20:06]
• “Any kind of event like this—everybody that went up to that floor came down a different human being.” – Josh Bitzko [36:35]
• “If I just focus on the negativity, then it's going to eat me up. So I tend not to give that any of my energy.” – Josh Bitzko [35:17]
• “You can’t control how you feel, but you can always control how you respond.” – Josh Bitzko [41:09]

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Key Timestamps

• 03:15 – [Career beginnings, transition challenges]
• 08:19 – [K9 partnerships and family life]
• 14:57 – [Shooter setup and event details]
• 16:56 – [Initial radio call and training limitations]
• 17:43 – [Chaos upon arrival, confusion of scene]
• 24:52 – [Mindset and emotional weight entering the scene]
• 27:41 – [Encountering the suspected explosive device]
• 31:28 – [Making entry, discovering the shooter deceased]
• 36:35 – [Lasting impact on first responders]
• 39:53 – [Starting therapy, ongoing healing process]
• 41:31 – [Book overview and purpose]
• 42:39 – [Consulting and contact details]

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Conclusion

This episode stands out for its candid, firsthand recounting of the Mandalay Bay mass shooting by a key police responder. Josh Bitzko’s story extends beyond tactics and trauma, highlighting the enduring struggles of police officers and the necessity of mental health care. His book and consulting work underline a move from reactive policing to proactive wellness and leadership, making the conversation relevant for anyone dealing with trauma or seeking to understand its lifelong reverberations.

For more information about Josh Bitzko’s work or to find his book, visit bitskoconsulting.com.

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Transcript

[WSECU Announcer]

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[John J. Wiley]

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[John J. Wiley]

He's retired from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. He was on scene for the room entry, the deadliest mass shooting in US History. He also supervised an officer involved shooting not long after that. He's here to talk about all that and more. Welcome to the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. In the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show, we are joined by special guests talking about their experiences, their realities, investigating crimes, plus those who have experienced horrendous trauma. Police, first responders, military and victims of crime share their stories. Hi, I'm John J. Wiley. In addition to being a broadcaster, I'm also a retired police sergeant. Be sure to check out our website letradio.com and also like us on Facebook. Search for the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. One of your top destinations on the Internet should be letradioshow.com you'll find every episode of the show as a free podcast after airing on radio. You'll also find great blog articles, op ed articles and much more [e-mail] that's letradioshow.com don't forget it's all [e-mail] Conte is from Las Vegas, Nevada. We have retired Las Vegas, Nevada Metro Police Department Captain Josh Bitco on the law enforcement talk radio show. Josh is going to talk about the Mandalay Bay shooting, one of the worst incidents of mass shootings in American history and being on scene supervising a police involved shooting a little bit later afterwards. Josh, before we get started the conversation, let's just let me say this. Thank you for your service and thanks for being guest on the show. Both very much appreciate it.

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, I appreciate your having me. Like I said, it's always my goal to get the message out and you know, share some of my experiences and hopes that it can help other law enforcement officers around the country.

[John J. Wiley]

How long have you been retired now?

[Josh Bitzko]

I retired in February of 24, so about a year and a half, maybe a little more than that.

[John J. Wiley]

So by the way, you are rookie when it comes to retirement because I retired, I got hurt, retired young and I was 33. So that was 1992 when I retired. So that's probably before you even started policing in Nate?

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, I hired on when I was 18 so I hired on as a cadet right out of high school and then went straight into the academy at 21. So like I said, I did 24 years but I retired and started my company and this is basically all I've ever done.

[John J. Wiley]

By the way, by the way, Josh wrote a book called the Courage to Live. You can find it on Amazon and his website is bitsco consulting.com that's b I t s k o consulting.com before we get into details of your story, did you find transitioning from police work into civilian work to be challenging or a challenging transition for you?

[Josh Bitzko]

Absolutely. I mean all I ever knew was being a police officer and it's all I ever wanted to be. So you know, I was excited to retire and you know, start this new challenge. But there's a lot of changes. I mean it goes for I definitely don't miss being, you know, the politics of being a captain on a major agency. I still miss being a cop.

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah.

[Josh Bitzko]

So miss wearing the uniform and talking to people. Right.

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[John J. Wiley]

And I don't understand what captains do. It's a different best example I can give is when I went from police officer to sergeant, I didn't realize all that that came along with that position and it was a different aspect of policing and we had first level which I never had to deal with before. So there's all kinds of changes. I'm sure There are some big changes for you as a captain, but I want to talk about your career. You spent part of that in patrol. As to where most people start, and then you gravitated towards, I guess it was SWAT.

[Josh Bitzko]

It was K9. So I spent most of my time, yes, was patrol K9. K9 handler, K9 sergeant. Ran our training program. You know, when I was a new officer, I always thought I wanted to be like a detective or undercover. I realized I was terrible at that, and I was gonna myself or someone else hurt because I just could not go out there and basically, you know, act like somebody I wasn't. I just carried myself like a cop. So I decided I just wanted to be in uniform. So most of the jobs that I had over the course of my career was more patrol oriented. Like K9 or K9 handler, patrol sergeant, patrol lieutenant, bureau commander, as a captain at an area command. Like, everything that I did was always geared towards patrol because I loved that. And the stuff that I thought I wanted to do turned out to not work for me.

[John J. Wiley]

I'm glad you brought about the undercover, by the way. I was a great narcotics detective when it came to surveillance. I was lousy at undercover work, and there's a huge difference between the two. And also a big dog person. But the main reason why I never got into canine number one, I'm not speaking for all agencies but my agency. I was not a golden boy. I was not one of those chosen few that got the choice assignments. Number two, with my luck, I get a dog to bark non stop in my ear. And I have Rottweiler. Now, we love the breed, but they're pretty quiet. And that seemed to suit my mood fine. How did you find the transition to canine work?

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, it was funny because I just tested for our narcotics section. It's funny you mentioned that. And I had somebody in the section that I trusted. Came to me was like, hey, you've come out, you've ridden with us, you've done work with us. And I just don't know if it's a good fit. And I appreciated the candor. So then I was patrol, and, you know, I'm always getting info pursuits. And I ended up walking with a canine handler to get me as backup officer. We ended up finding a suspect hiding in a bush, and I was hooked. So I, you know, took the test. That's the good thing about being on a big agency is, you know, we had 22 K9 handlers at Las Vegas Metro. So, you know, I took the test, made it into K9 and it was like a completely different world, a completely different job. You know, you're still a cop, you're still patrol you, but you have now this animal that you're responsible for 24, 7, 365. And, you know, just the dynamic of working with a dog, living with a dog, it turned out to be very. It was different, but I loved it. I loved every minute of it. It was exciting, it was fun, it was different every day, and it just. It hooked me.

[John J. Wiley]

A lot of people don't understand, and Hollywood's a big part of this, but the whole partner aspect, there's certain people you gravitate to, you work with, you go through life and death situations together with, you develop bond with. And you can't help but do that with dogs, I would imagine. And what a lot of people don't realize is that dog is also a member of the family. And then I said, partner, that when you go home, most agencies, they go home with you too. Was that the situation with you?

[Josh Bitzko]

Yeah, so they. I worked several different patrol dogs in my time in K9, and everyone was a little different. But, yeah, they're not like horses that can be in a stable and then you go take them out. I understand there's still a relationship with horses and their riders, but, you know, dogs are very social animals. So I would come home and he was definitely a member of the family. A member of the family. I always had to worry about, like, biting the UPS guy if he stepped onto our property. But nonetheless a member of the family. And so that bond there. I spent more time with my canine partner than my kids or my wife. And it's just the nature of it, of you do build a bond because this dog learned to trust me and I learned to trust him. I mean, he was there to keep myself, my partners, the community safe. And I really had to build that trust with him. And that just builds a bond that, you know, I've loved dogs my whole life. I hunted, so I hunted with dogs. But at the same time, you know, when you're out there looking for somebody with a gun and you have to trust this animal with your life, and he proves that you can. It just builds just. It's very undescribable. The bond that I had with all of my canine partners, but especially my last one, Loki, he was a special dog.

[John J. Wiley]

And what a lot of people also don't realize is when they retire, they usually retire to their handler and they're part of the family. It's like, you can't get rid of their partnership number one, but you can't get rid of the family dynamic. Was that the situation with you?

[Josh Bitzko]

Yeah. So Loki retired. He was about 11. I promoted the lieutenant out of K9, and so he retired with me. And it was amazing to have him full time as a pet. And also kind of difficult. He would get mad because I would get in uniform and go to work without him. And although his body wasn't capable of doing the job, his mind still wanted to do the job. So, you know, he would whine or bark or, you know, bug my kids because. Where'd dad go? He went to work without me. Why is this happening? So I would spend a lot of time with him, you know, walking him and throwing balls. I'd even sneak into trainings and let him bite, you know, the decoys, the people in the bite suits, just so he could still feel like he was working. Retirement's not just hard for us, it's hard for the dog.

[John J. Wiley]

I was going to say that. I know a lot of humans that struggle with that, and you're talking to one of them right now. It took quite a while for me to develop my life after police work, but. But here's when you said something that really resonated. You said that the body's not able, but the mind still wants to. And that's where I found myself for a long period of time. We're talking about Josh Biscoe. He's a retired Las Vegas Metro Police captain. He's authored the book the Courage to Live. And his website is bitsco consulting.com, that's B I T S K O consulting dot com. This is law Enforcement Talk Radio show. In return, we talk about Mandalay Bay, the worst mass shooting in US History. He was on scene. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. There's a couple ways you can stay in touch and keep informed of what's going on with the law enforcement talk radio show. Number one. Go to our website, letradio.com sign up for our email newsletter. It's real easy to find. I promise we don't spam you. I sent out about one email every two weeks or so. And there's also a feature called Broadcast Channels on our Facebook page where we send messages directly to your inbox, directly to your messenger. Real easy to sign up for. Make sure you like or follow the law enforcement talk radio show Facebook page. And up top, you'll see broadcast channels. One for free podcast versions of the radio show, another one top post of the day. So you too can stay informed quickly, easily and best of all, like always, free.

[WSECU Announcer]

WSECU isn't just one of Washington's best credit unions. We're the only credit union to be on the Forbes Best in State list five years running. Why? Because we put you first. Lower fees, early paydays, financial guidance and service second to none. As a member owned cooperative, we love Washington as much as you do. From the Olympic mountains to the rolling Palouse. Join us and discover how much we care about your financial well being. Because what we really do best is invest in you. Stop by, say hi, we're wsecu.

[John J. Wiley]

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[Josh Bitzko]

No, that is correct.

[John J. Wiley]

And that's, that's the one. Here's my major complaint about police work. And it's not just the media, but that's what I'm gonna say. They usually put the cops actions first. They don't put the 150 decisions that the bad guy made beforehand first. That could prevented all this. But I really get a case that you know what's when so called T experts have to mouth off online. Well if I was there I'd have done this. And my answer to that is usually you weren't there. So shut your pie hole.

[Josh Bitzko]

And yeah, so what happens is generally you know people, they think they know what they would do in any kind of given situation, especially stressful ones. But truly you can train, you can prepare, but you don't know how you're emotionally going to handle something until you're in that situation.

[John J. Wiley]

Right, right. And that's, that's the kind of situation that police work, at least for me, they train you for every possible contingent. I don't think anybody could imagine that. And there was no case scenario before that where you had a guy, if my memory is correct, he had multiple rifles and he was shooting from way up in the Mandalay Bay Hotel at a music festival below?

[Josh Bitzko]

Yeah, that's correct. He went up to the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay. He'd taken about a week to assemble an arsenal of 23 weapons inside the room. He actually had two rooms, 135 and 134. And once he got all the weapons up there, prepared the room how he wanted it, set up cameras out front to see our response so he could see the police response to his room, and then broke out two windows and began shooting down into the crowd with fully automatic fire. Because he had bump stocks, which is an aftermarket stock that can go on semiautomatic rifles and it replicates fully automatic fire. So he was able to, he had quite the arsenal, intense firepower, and shoot into a crowd of 22,000 people across Las Vegas Boulevard at a country concert. He, he killed 58 people that night. Two have since died from their injuries. 413 people shot or hit with frag and over 850 injuries, all from this one person's actions.

[John J. Wiley]

And we look at this scenario and say the police should have known. Hindsight's 20 20. You didn't know how many rifles he had when you first responded, did you?

[Josh Bitzko]

No. I mean, that's the thing is we have to respond within seconds to what it took months and months of somebody to plan. That's why it's so important to have the proper mind mindset in law enforcement. It's one of the things that I train now around the country teaching law enforcement is how to develop that proper mindset to respond in the best way possible. When you don't have the time to have a plan. I mean, you can have a quick and down and dirty plan because of your training and what's unfolding in front of you. But we have to have the right mindset to be able to act courageously, act tactically, and do the job that we need to do before we get.

[John J. Wiley]

Into your role in the scene. When you first get the call that you were alerted to this situation, was there anything that's prepared you mentally for what you're going to encounter?

[Josh Bitzko]

So the call was, I heard on the radio automatic gunfire. I listened to all the radio channels at once. Because in K9, you just go to, you know, the exciting things or the foot pursuits, vehicle pursuits. So I listened to all the channels at once because I could do that on my radio. And I heard automatic gunfire. And. And prior to this, I'd done active shooter training. I mean, we're a large agency in Las Vegas and Sin City, so we were always prepared for some sort of attack. But when you think of active shooter, you think somebody going through a crowd, randomly shooting somebody. But this was more of a barricaded sniper up in a room shooting down into the crowd. And that wasn't something I specifically had trained for. It just we had to kind of roll with the punches of what was unfolding in front of us.

[John J. Wiley]

And what was your role when you got there?

[Josh Bitzko]

So when I arrived, it was pure chaos. Like, you had 51 officers working the concert already in overtime capacity. There was some leadership at the concert, but when we responded initially, the first six, seven minutes, we thought the shooter was in the concert grounds because of the confusion, because of, you know, in Las Vegas, the rounds, the sound of the gunfire echoes off all the buildings around. So you can't pinpoint, based on sound alone, where the shooting's coming from. And then there's also that, you know, what does an active shooter look like? We all have what we've trained and what we know on an active shooter. And then this was a little different. So trying to get your mind around what's unfolding. So I responded to the Mandalay Bay, because as I was getting closer, officers down on scene were able to identify where the shooting was coming from. Plus, inside the Mandalay Bay, they had called our dispatch and said, we have somebody in a room on the 32nd floor firing a gun. So we were able to put all that together. And so I arrived at the Mandalay Bay. There's an aquarium attached to it, and then convention space. So I arrived there. I have a team of a couple detectives that just showed up trying to help. I had a one other canine handler with me myself. And we have to make our way up to the suspect's room to try and stop the rampage that was happening.

[John J. Wiley]

There's an old saying that comes to mind is you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want. And that really plays true police work. I'm sure that you wanted to have a different team, and I'm not saying anything negative about those, but you gotta go, you gotta respond with the team you got.

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, yeah, I mean, listen, in a perfect World, I'd have a fully outfitted SWAT team, all my K9 handlers, and all of our SWAT gear because our K9 works with our SWAT team. I've been to SWAT school. I had all the gear. But at the end of the day, you know, the team that I did have, they're not the people that I've worked with. They're not the people that I trained with. But what I did know about them is they showed up ready to have an impact. And that was valuable to me as well.

[John J. Wiley]

And by the way, and I've said this many times, this is not new, there were Baltimore police that refused to back me up because they said, and they quote, you track too many guns. And there were tiny, tiny female officers that when I was in battle for my life, they came in and grabbed a hand. I. The most important thing was showing up. If you ask me.

[Josh Bitzko]

Yeah, that's exactly it. I want somebody with the mindset to show up, do their job. Doesn't matter if it's dangerous. It doesn't mean it doesn't have an impact on you. Doesn't mean you're not feeling fear or anxiety or all the emotions that come along with any kind of critical incident. But having the willingness to show up and do the job, that was the most important thing that anybody could take to this kind of event.

[John J. Wiley]

So we're talking with Josh Bitzko. Josh is retired Las Vegas Metro Police Department captain. We'll talk about that aspect of career. He's also author of the book Courage to Live and his website and you find the book on Amazon. His website is Bitsco Consulting. That's B I T S K O consulting dot com. This is a law enforcement talk radio show. And we return our conversation with Josh. We're going to talk more about Mandalay Bay room entry, what they discovered, what they did afterwards. And then if time permits, we'll get into the supervising the officer involved shooting that occurred shortly after. Of all the radio stations in the United States, there are no other shows like the law enforcement talk radio show. And on Facebook, there's only one official page. Do a search on Facebook for the law enforcement talk radio show and be sure to like the law enforcement talk radio show Facebook page. Don't go anywhere. This law enforcement talk radio show will be right back.

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[John J. Wiley]

Why?

[WSECU Announcer]

Because we put you first. Lower fees, early paydays, financial guidance and service second to none. As a member owned cooperative, we love Washington as much as you do. From the Olympic mountains to the rolling Palouse. Join us and discover how much we care about your financial well being. Because what we really do best is invest in you. Stop by, say hi, we're wsecu. Let's credit union.

[John J. Wiley]

Return to conversation with Josh Bitzko on the law enforcement talk radio show. Josh is retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in Nevada. Police captain. He's authored the book the Courage to Live, which you can find on Amazon and his website is bitsko consulting.com it's b I t s k o consulting.com back to our conversation. You were, I believe, if a memory is correct, a sergeant K9 SWAT sergeant. And you robbed the Manalay Bay Hotel. And then you were making your way up to the 32nd floor where the shooter was. Am I wrong?

[Josh Bitzko]

No, you were right. We arrived at the Mandalay Bay, threw on our gear, had a couple detectives, a canine handler, myself, and we make entry through the Shark Reef. Now, if you imagine the size of these places here in Las Vegas, you have this giant aquarium, you have a couple hundred thousand square feet of convention space and then a giant casino floor that we have to navigate to make our way to the elevators to get up to the suspect's room. So just the size of these places can be environmentally an obstacle that we have to navigate. So we have our team and we make our way through. We get to the casino floor. Before I go up to the room, I stop at a security podium where there is a security officer. And now I had three detectives, a canine handler, myself at this point. I grabbed one of my detectives and grabbed the security officer and I said, I need you to go to the surveillance room and get me intel. Because at the onset of any of these events, through the chaos, intel is one of the things that we don't have a lot of. Right, right. You know, I know the shooting, I Know the chaos outside. But I want to know, you know, is the suspect still in the room? Are there multiple suspects? Is there someone somewhere else in the Mandalay Bay that's shooting? So, you know, the good thing about Las Vegas is there are cameras everywhere.

[John J. Wiley]

And that's the good thing. So you get that information you need. When you were. I'm thinking, right, right now, I'm getting a heart pounding situation, look there. There are bad calls that we go on and my mind automatically starts thinking, okay, this is what I trained to do. This is what I'm supposed to do. But they get this really unique calls where you don't know what to do. And does your. Was your mind going through the worst case scenario when you're approaching right room?

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, yeah, for me it was because I was in a leadership position, because I was a sergeant. I didn't want to make the wrong decision and get somebody killed.

[John J. Wiley]

Right.

[Josh Bitzko]

I would say that that was the main emotion that I was feeling in that moment is I knew I had to make 100 decisions based on what was unfolding in front of me. This didn't fit the training that I had done in the past. I mean, it was similar. You had somebody actively killing people. And I've been on hundreds of barricades at this point. But as far as the complexity and the gravity of this situation, I mean, it was heavy. And I'll tell you, even sending that. So when I sent that one detective with security and most security, there's not a lot of security that's armed in Las Vegas. I mean, there's now after this incident. But I remember his partner going, hey, I'll go with him. And I did a quick counter. The people on my team were like, no, he has to go alone. And that was one of those first decisions like we're talking about. It's like I'm sending this cop with an unarmed security officer through the casino floor to surveillance when I don't know if the suspect's out of the room, if the suspect's still in the room. He just stopped shooting at this point. And I remember thinking, man, I hope that guy doesn't die. Because I didn't want to make the wrong call and get somebody killed.

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah, I get that 150%. And unfortunately, I never did. I had officers are injured. And that weighs on at least guys like me heavily. And, you know, I don't know how to say this, Josh. It's, you're going to send someone, you've got to send someone in either. And usually it was Me, I usually did something because I didn't feel comfortable and time was not in my favor. I just went in and said, you come to me. We're going to follow my lead. And that's really all the prep time we had. When you were approaching the door, what was your mindset like then? What do we do? What. What's going on?

[Josh Bitzko]

So we make our way. When we make our way up to the suspect floor, again, we have to take the elevators up to the 29th floor, take a stairwell up to the 32nd floor.

[John J. Wiley]

You praying like a maniac on the. On the elevator. Because I this. I rarely ever prayed when I was policing, but usually was in a car heading to police job or raids or something I knew was hair to begin with. But I can't imagine that elevator ride.

[Josh Bitzko]

Yeah, I mean, well, I was still. You know, the good thing about being a leader is a distracted giving people their jobs. I mean, there were times that I felt, you know, fear and the gravity and like, this is intense. This is an intense situation. But it was more, hey, we're going to get there. You're going to be, you know, I'll be number one because I have a rifle on the plate. You're going to be number two. You're going to be number three. You're going to be my breacher. You're going to be this. So, you know, so the action helped because it wasn't just sitting there in silence on an elevator ride, but getting up there. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of parts of this that were very heavy.

[John J. Wiley]

And then you make your way from the elevator down the hallway to his rooms. And that had to be. Were you staging at that point so people can visualize. Were you staging where you have a line of officers?

[Josh Bitzko]

So I go down to the 31st floor, I meet up with one SWAT officer where he had a team of officers. We go down the hallway, and there's a stairwell right next to the suspect room to go up to the 32nd floor. So we take that stairwell up where we encounter that the suspect had taken an L bracket to screw that door shut to prevent us from getting into the hallway to get to his door. So we had a pry bar because the SWAT officer that was with me was also a breacher. So we were able to take that pry bar and pull that L bracket off and open the door into the hallway, where we see the suspect's door. Now, at this point, the suspect had shot through the door dozens of times down the hallway, and he also had a room service cart that he had placed in front of the other door. So there was. He had 135, which is a suite to our left, and 134, which is an adjoining room. And in front of 134, he had a room service cart. And we could see wires going from the room service cart into the room. So of course, with the chaos down below, so many people that we know are shot and dead and then we see this cart with wires, our whole team thought it was an explosive to device waiting for us. Especially coupled with him taking the L bracket to try and funnel us down that hallway.

[John J. Wiley]

Yeah, that's the first thing that comes to my mind too. And I want people to understand it's almost a dual mindset. You got to eliminate the threat. You got to eliminate threat, but you don't want to endanger anybody else's life of subordinate officers at the same time. I'm sure that was going through your mind.

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, that was the balance and that was what I was, you know, it was heavy on my mind. And I know Levi is a SWAT officer that was with me. It's. We wanted to make the right decision. We didn't want to get people killed, but we also didn't mind sending people and us going into danger because we knew that's what we had to do to try and stop this. And like I said, the suspects had stopped shooting at this point and we didn't know if, okay, is he turned and waiting for us because there are cameras that he can see us. So we need to be able to get in there because we can't get medical down below to the victims until we get this room clear out. So that was heavy on all of our minds. And also, again, like I said, that anxiety of, am I making the wrong call? I'm going to get this entire team kill. And everyone's like, well, why wouldn't you go grab a bomb dog, which would have take 30 minutes, or get a bomb squad, which would have taken an hour for an entire SWAT team. All those things are. Those are things that are running through. I know they were in my mind for sure.

[John J. Wiley]

Well, I ran through some of the similar things as a police sergeant in Baltimore and the time it took to stand a SWAT team, it would take forever. And sometimes you just didn't have that luxury of time. You had to take action when you forced the room. What was your role as a sergeant in K9?

[Josh Bitzko]

So what we did is I had a ballistic shield, so I had one K9 officer shield the door. The SWAT officer, like I said, who's a breacher, hung an explosive breach on the suspect's door while I covered the secondary door. And as I got close to the cart, I could see that there was a camera on it. So I reached down and I flipped the camera so it's not facing us again the whole time thinking this thing is probably going to explode, knowing that, okay, if it does, we're going to clear a path for the next team that's coming up here. Thankfully, it wasn't an explosive. So, you know, we did. That didn't happen. So after we hang the breach, we step back into the stairwell and we detonate the breach. It's a positive breach. So we step into the hallway where we make entry into the room. I'm at the back of the team, SWAT officer up front, a couple officers. We make entry in the room and start to clear it out. Now it's a suite and it's pretty large and it's kind of surreal. We go in the room, there's guns everywhere on the floor, shell casings, broken glass. And we had to again see if there's how many suspects there were. There are multiple suspects. We don't at this point, we don't know it's one suspect. That had taken weeks to prepare. We're again responding to what's unfolding in front of us. So we clear out the room, find the suspect deceased on the ground with a self inflicted gunshot wound and make sure there's no other suspects. We do a secondary explosive breach on the connecting room that I mentioned at room 134 and we do the same thing and clear that room out as well where we just find more guns and more evidence of what happened.

[John J. Wiley]

We're going to take a short break. Break on the note. We're talking with Josh Bitzko, retired Las Vegas Metro police captain, talking about the Mandalay Bay mass shooting and he was involved on scene. When we return, we'll talk a little bit more about that. He's author's book Courage to Change, I mean Courage to Live, which you can find on Amazon. His website is bitsco.consulting.com is b I t s k o consulting.com this is law enforcement talk radio show. We'll take a short break. We'll be right back. Of all the radio stations in the United States, there are no other shows like the law enforcement talk radio show. And on Facebook there's only one official page. Do a search on Facebook for the law enforcement talk radio show and be sure to like the law enforcement talk radio Show Facebook page.

[WSECU Announcer]

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[John J. Wiley]

Why?

[WSECU Announcer]

Because we put you first. Lower fees, early paydays, financial guidance and service second to none. As a member owned cooperative, we love Washington as much as you do. From the Olympic mountains to the rolling Palouse. Join us and discover how much we care about your financial well being. Because what we really do best is invest in you. Stop by, say hi, we're wsecu. Let's credit union.

[John J. Wiley]

Return to conversation with Josh Bitzko on the law enforcement talk radio show. Josh is retired Las Vegas Metro Police captain. He is author of the book the Courage to Live. You can find it on Amazon and also has a website, bitsco consulting.com is b I t s k o consulting dot com. I gotta ask you this, Josh. First of all, thank you for what you did that day and for all of your servers. Not just that part of it, but that's a pretty big deal. Sometimes and I'm a phrase as a formal question, sometimes I really have to understand that people sometimes go through my head is like, yeah, you talk a big game, but you have no idea what I've been through. Do you ever find that you're changed by that and your response to people negative or positive as a result of that?

[Josh Bitzko]

I will say that. Are there times that I've encountered people that are like, you know, well, I would have done this and I would have done that. I'd say, but more, more often than not, the response is, wow, that was really heavy. Or that was, you know, very unique event that you responded to and receive support especially from the law enforcement community. So I try not to focus on the negativity when people are, you know, being negative about that. And I'll just be candid with them. Well, you know, yeah, you weren't there, so you don't understand parts of this. But at the same time, my whole job and goal now is to teach people about what to expect on events like this or any critical incident for that matter.

[John J. Wiley]

And I think the teaching a big part of that is self awareness. And for me to be a little more specific, I've found that my people skills have gotten worse over time. And it's not about specific situation, but there are people, they're loudmouth guys who love to run their mouth, yeah, I'll do this, I'll do that. And I'm thinking, yeah, you have no idea who you're dealing with, with and what I've been through and you can't really scare me. One of my daughters got me a mug. She said, you can't scare me. I was a Baltimore police and I have two daughters. So what are you going to throw at me? Your best shot? Go ahead.

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, yeah, I mean, like I said, at the end of the day, we have a unique job in law enforcement and we're surrounded by very type A personalities and everybody has an opinion. But, but at the same time, you know, it's. I tend not to give a whole lot of attention to the noise. You know, I have, I have daughters, I have a family, I have, you know, sons. I have everything that, you know, I want in life now. But at the same time, if I just focus on the negativity, then it's going to eat me up. So I tend not to give that any of my energy when that happens.

[John J. Wiley]

And I've found for me personally that self awareness thing that I'm not going to voluntarily give control over my life to someone else. Just not going to do it. Everybody's entitled their opinion, but opinions are like, you know what? And everybody's got one and they all stink. And usually what they don't have is facts. And I appreciate what you went through, but I can't help but think that not just you, but everybody from Las Vegas, Henderson, that wound up showing up at that situation, police, police, firefighters, paramedics, that they were somehow changed. I just can't, I don't know how you do it and not be changed.

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, yeah, absolutely. Any kind of event like this, you know, everybody that went up to that floor came down a different human. And a thousand, more than a thousand officers that responded to this event were changed just because the shocking and violent nature of an event like this, it has an impact on us. And so you have, in the course of a career in law enforcement, that cumulative effect of going on, seeing the worst side of humanity and fighting that battle to not let it make you negative. And then you have these, you know, a couple of events that are acute that really have an impact on you. And I'll tell you, it took me a while after this to finally start in therapy and start working through some of the things that I'd experienced. And this was a big one. I've talked quite a bit in therapy and with professionals about this event, trying to, you know, regain that humanity and, and live with joy and not just turn into a robot, because it's easier to be a robot sometimes than feel the whole of our experiences.

[John J. Wiley]

It is. And for me, I had to really get rid of the shoulda, coulda, wouldas. I'm not Superman. I'm not God. And I guess this is a question. Did you have any periods of thought in your mind where I should have done this and the outcome was indifferent?

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, still to this day, I mean, listen, if you go on anything of this magnitude, no critical incidents, go perfect. If you're in policing and you are responding the best you can to somebody that had a lot of time to prepare a plan, you're responding to someone else's actions, you're never going to be perfect. And there's one. One thing is learning from mistakes, and another thing is not dwelling on them and let them eat you alive. Because that's how you go down that rabbit hole of trying to rationalize and relive everything you've been through and letting the guilt get a hold of you. But I made 100 mistakes that night. And I've tried to learn from them and also try and help other people learn from those same mistakes.

[John J. Wiley]

Well, it's a natural transition to what you're doing today. So you continued on. I can't remember what year this shooting was, but you had a long career after that. And you were sergeant and you retired as a captain. So you went from sergeant lieutenant to captain.

[Josh Bitzko]

Yeah, so I promoted a couple of times after the incident. I was a sergeant. I went to lieutenant, had a couple different jobs as a lieutenant. I was a captain. I was a captain over the Las Vegas strip. I was a captain of our wellness bureau that we were forming. So I had to create a wellness bureau for the mental health of all of our employees, the 6,000 people at Las Vegas Metro. And so I had a long career and at the same time knowing that this event was weighing on me, but able to use that to help people while I was with Metro and then continued to do that into retirement through my company. Company.

[John J. Wiley]

So before we get into your company, what you're doing today, when did you start seeking help with therapy? Was that during your career as a police officer, regardless of rank or when you retired or are you doing or is it from then till now?

[Josh Bitzko]

So I retired in 2024. In 2020, I started seeing mental health professional. I started that therapeutic journey. As much as I hate saying that.

[John J. Wiley]

Term, I hate it too.

[Josh Bitzko]

And I did.

[John J. Wiley]

But it's unavoidable. I said I hate it too, but it's unavoidable and it's part of policing. You've got to be proactive about yeah.

[Josh Bitzko]

And I had not only this, I had this event that obviously weighed heavy on me. I had a officer involved shooting six weeks later with a murder suspect. I lost a brother to suicide, lost a father to cancer, all in a very short period of time. And the weight got so heavy. So in 2020, I finally sat down with a mental health professional, sat down with a therapist, and started working on myself. But it's something that I still do to this day, and it's worked. You just have to constantly be putting time and effort into your own mental health, just like we do our physical health.

[John J. Wiley]

That's right. I live it this way. And not to get on my soapbox, because we're almost out of time. I treat mental health the same way. Your brain is an organ in the body, just like the heart is. It does different roles, but if your thoughts are out of whack, your mood's out of whack. That's usually a sign that something is not right. And treat your mental health the same as your physical health or very similar. And I used to think I should have control of my thoughts or stop thinking like that. You shouldn't do that. You don't need to. And I need to learn tools of what to do when this came up.

[Josh Bitzko]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, there's times that you can control those thoughts, and there's other times you can't. You can't control how you feel, but you can always control how you respond to.

[John J. Wiley]

That's right.

[Josh Bitzko]

And the first step should really be, you know, seeking help and finding a professional that can. That works with you and works for you, like a good relationship. And then, you know, working on growing through that trauma and becoming stronger and processing through it so you can again live your life.

[John J. Wiley]

So the book you wrote is the Courage to Live. Tell us about that book and why you wrote it.

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, I wanted to create a blueprint for not just law enforcement, but for anybody that, you know, experiences hard things and that has to make difficult decisions under stress, but also through that trauma, how to. I don't want people to take that long road that I did for my own mental health. It took years and years after all of this stuff happening for me to finally get help. So in the book, I. I talk about the incident. I do go through a timeline, you know, way more in depth than even we've talked about today. And then I have pictures from the scene that have never been released before. And ultimately then I get into, you know, not just my journey, but proven tools and tactics to experience chaos to regulate your emotions, to be able seek the help that you need. So it was a labor of love and it really, you know, it was even cathartic for me to put it down on paper, but with the ultimate goal to get people help to start that own journey and maybe not take as long as it took me.

[John J. Wiley]

And the book is called the Courage to Live. You can find it on Amazon very quickly, about 10 seconds. Your website is bitscopeconsulting.com what are you doing now and can people contact you there?

[Josh Bitzko]

Yeah, they can contact me through the website. There's a contact page. And ultimately I travel the country and I teach law enforcement and business businesses, you know, how to have resilience, how to have courage and also leadership.

[John J. Wiley]

Josh, I appreciate your service. I appreciate talking about a really, really tough situation and the book and all that you do and for being guest on the show, both very all very much appreciated.

[Josh Bitzko]

Well, thank you for having me. Like I said, my goal now at this point in my life is to have an impact, especially on our first responder community. You know, the job gave a lot to me. It also had a huge impact on me. And if through that I can share my experiences and have an impact on the cops that are out working today, then that's my passion. And you know, it's fighting a good fight.

[John J. Wiley]

Of all the radio stations in the United States, there are no other shows like the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. And on Facebook there's only one official page. Do a search on Facebook for the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show and be sure to like the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show Facebook page. I'd like to thank our guests for coming on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. The Law Enforcement Talk Radio show is a nationally syndicated weekly radio show broadcast on Numerous AM&FM radio stations across the country. We're always adding more affiliate stations. If you enjoyed the podcast version of the show, which is always free, please do me a favor and tell a friend or two or three. I'll be back in just a few days with another episode of the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show and Podcast. Until then, this is John J. Wiley. See ya.

[WSECU Announcer]

WSECU isn't just one of Washington's best credit unions. We're the only credit union to be on the Forbes Best in State list five years running.

[John J. Wiley]

Why?

[WSECU Announcer]

Because we put you first. Lower fees, early paydays, financial guidance and service second to none. As a member owned cooperative, we love Washington as much as you do. From the Olympic Mountain to the Rolling Palouse. Join us and discover how much we care about your financial well being because what we really do best is invest in you. Stop by, say hi, we're wsecu, let's Credit Union.

[John J. Wiley]

If you like the show, please take.

[Josh Bitzko]

A moment to rate, review and subscribe.

[John J. Wiley]

It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.