Las Vegas Cops Can't Explain Why An Officer Handcuffed And Detained Michael Bennett [Updated]

Hours after Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett posted on Twitter today that an Las Vegas police officer held a gun to his head and threatened to “blow [his] fucking head off” the night of the Mayweather-McGregor fight, Undersherriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department held a press conference to take questions about what happened. But one really key question—why did police consider the unarmed Bennett in a room full of people running from a possible shooter to be suspicious—went unanswered, with McMahill saying, “I really can’t answer that as yet.”

The press conference built up to McMahill playing an inconclusive body-cam video, which is posted above. McMahill said police rushed to the The Cromwell Hotel and Casino in response to a report of a possible active shooter (police later determined that no shots had been fired). Most of the five-minute video showed officers evacuating people and moving through the building, looking for a possible shooter. Bennett didn’t appear until the end, handcuffed on the ground and viewed from a further distance than the recent TMZ video.

McMahill said there were 126 videos of what happened that police would be gathering, but they will not include the body camera worn by the officer who detained Bennett. McMahill said that officer didn’t have his body camera turned on, and he did not know why. He added that video showing the initial interaction between Bennett and the officer also hadn’t been found yet, either.

McMahill said that the names of the officers involved would not be released because no deadly force was used, and the officers are still on patrol and have not yet been questioned. An internal investigation has been opened.

One of the most important questions, though, was what it was that made the unarmed Bennett stand out in a huge crowd of people, nearly all of whom were running from what they thought was serious danger. A reporter in the room asked that question following the playing of the video.

“I really can’t answer that as yet,” McMahill said, noting that the officers involved will submit to questioning from internal affairs detectives. “That’s exactly what we’d like to hear from Mr. Bennett as well.”

Update (9:46 p.m. ET): A still image from the Las Vegas police’s video at 4:19 appears to show the detaining officer with his gun drawn toward Bennett while Bennett is on the ground. Bennett, who already said that’s what the officer did, retweeted people who noticed this. McMahill confirmed in the the press conference that both detaining officers had their weapons drawn, but did not elaborate on where they were pointed.