Las Vegas Strip Bombings

Benjamin L. Massey Building (FBI Criminology Center)

Other Tourist Attractions including Casinos, Parks, and Festivals

The **Las Vegas Strip Bombings** also known as the **3/8 Attack** were a series of domestic terrorist attacks carried out by The Group of Fifty

## Background

### Group of Fifty

**More information can be found on the article Group of Fifty**

The Group of Fifty was an Domestic Terrorist Cell based in the United States. They were founded by FBI Deputy Director Michael Waters and Montana Senator Jason Eckstein, originally founded so that information about 2020 Presidential Candidates. Eventually Senator Martin Sharene found out about the illegal information sharing. Two days later he was killed in his home along with his wife, and two Capitol Police Officers. Eckstein eventually left the group and went on the run. He was not seen after December 6th, 2019.

The Group carried out several attacks on other places including Times Square, Houston City Hall, and Grand Central Station. However Waters' target was newly appointed FBI Director Geoff Hilliers. One of Hilliers' first jobs as Director was opening the Benjamin L. Massey Building in Las Vegas, Nevada.

## Attack

### Timeline

March 8th, 2021, 10:46 am two unidentified individuals are found dead in the ditch in the northern Moapa Valley, Nevada by the Nevada State Police. The individuals were torched and set ablaze at a different location than where they were found. The individuals are later identified as two FBI Employees, one an FBI Special Agent Jacqueline Matthis and one FBI Intelligence Analyst Yvette MacCloud. MacCloud's body was severely bludgeoned, and Matthis' body was shot eight times. The autopsys conducted on March 23rd, 2021 concluded they both died of asphyxiation on March 8th at approximately 9:20 am.

March 8th, 2021, 10:57 am LVMPD Sergeant Thomas Little pulls over the vehicle of Sarah Eleanor Sanders on Las Vegas Boulevard, Sanders was an 80 year old woman who reported her vehicle hijacked just 2 hours earlier. Apon pulling over the vehicle, the driver, Jon Widdle was arrested. Over 17,000 dollars of ammunition and explosives were found in the vehicle.

March 8th, 10:59 am Sergeant Little requests backup and requests an FBI Squad to deal with the ammo and explosives.

March 8th, 2021, 11:08 am FBI Agents and LVMPD reinforcements arrive at Little's location.

March 8th, 2021, 11:14 am NLVPD (North Las Vegas Police Department) Lieutenant Robert Colliers is shot 4 times in his cruiser by two unidentified individuals while parked in a Walmart Parking Lot in North Las Vegas. The two individuals were later identified as Adalah Arif, a former ISIS Terrorist and Vincent Carl, an an ex-Army sharpshooter. Colliers was hit twice in the head, once in hand, and once in the shoulder.

March 8th, 2021, 11:19 am Lieutenant Colliers is discovered by NLVPD Corporal Joey Grayson. Colliers is critically injured.

March 8th, 2021, 11:20 am FBI Special Agent Maxwell Woods and his squad confiscate all arms and explosives from Jon Widdle.

March 8th, 2021, 11:23 am EMT Services arrive at Colliers side, they immediately begin triaging him.

March 8th, 2021, 11:26 am Lieutenant Colliers is declared dead by the EMT Services.

March 8th, 2021, 11:30 am Thomas Grey, the FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York City FBI Field Office is alerted to an unidentified threat in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, he contacts Supervisory Special Agent Jessica Saunders at the Las Vegas Field Office regarding the threat.

March 8th, 2021, 11:32 am SSA Saunders reports the threat to her supervisor Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Mike Godwin.

March 8th, 11:34 am ASAC Godwin holds off on addressing the threat after reading the intelligence report, the report read, “Threat deemed credible, estimated time of action March 17th, 2021.” The report was later learned to have been forged by an unknown individual within the FBI Deputy Director’s Office.

March 8th, 2021, 11:38 am Adalah Arif is seen by surveillance cameras near the Bellagio Hotel, he is wearing a backpack.

March 8th, 2021, 11:43 am Adalah Arif is seen by Las Vegas Van Gogh Exhibit's surveillance cameras, he is no longer wearing a backpack.

March 8th, 11:44 am FBI Special Agent Jamie Rhodes of the Joint Terrorism Task Force at the New York City Field Office is alerted to a situation occurring in Las Vegas, Rhodes correctly identifies it as being connected to previous incidents taking place in New York City. He immediately phones the office of the Counterterrorism Special Agent-in-Charge at the New York City Field Office, at the time Agent Sadie Housefeather.

March 8th, 11:48 am Housefeather attempts to get FBI Counterterrorism Analyst Dawson Pillinger on the phone. Pillinger answers but dismisses the incident according to notes from Housefeather Pillinger said “The Intelligence Report reads otherwise, it seems unlikely that the incidents are connected to each other. I would have your agent check again.”

March 8th, 11:52 am Jon Widdle is arrested and charged with various crimes related to the possession of illegal explosives.

March 8th, 11:55 A groundskeeper at the Bellagio Hotel, Benjamin Davis notices the suspicious backpack nearby, Davis picked it up and brought it into the building to the lost and found section near the centre of the hotel.

March 8th, 11:56 A communication sent from an unknown terrorist through the online messaging app Revia reads “All explosives are set in place.”

March 8th, 11:58 Approximately two minutes later, an individual with the username Gasprompt25 later identified as FBI Deputy Director Michael Waters sends a message in response on Revia reading “Excellent, I’m ready when you are.”

March 8th, 12:01 The unknown terrorist replies with “We had some complications, how about we hold off half an hour while we address them.”

March 8th, 12:02 Waters replies with “Fine by me, I’ll be watching and waiting, I can’t wait to see the headlines.”

## Emergency Response

Imediately after the first bombings, both Nevada Governor Joesph Hassinburger and President Joe Biden were notified of the attacks and evacuated to top secret bunkers. Due to the overload of emails the DOJ, DHS and CIA's servers all crashed just 5 minutes after the first bombs went off. Just half an hour after the bombings finished, Governor Hassinburger did a press conference from the FBI's Emergency Command Center.

Immediately after the bombings had ended, police attempted to arrive at the scene. The United States Department of Homeland Security issued a notice to avoid Clark County and the Greater Las Vegas Area until the bombings had ended. LVMPD Captain Harold Dunbee was the first commanding officer on the scene at the Benjamin L. Massey Building, the first bomb site. The site was evacuated and swept for further bombs. FBI Agent Arthur Griffin confirmed the death of Director Hilliers to Captain Dunbee who then relayed it to FBI Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Mike Godwin.

Godwin issued a press release just 15 minutes after the bombings ended announcing the death of Hilliers. Hilliers' death was immediately reported around the world and the attack's devastation is known.