Las Vegas shooting: At least 50 dead, more than 400 injured in massacre
A gunman turned a Las Vegas concert into a killing field Sunday night, murdering at least 50 people and injuring more than 400 others in the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history.
The suspect, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, a resident of Mesquite, Nevada. Police initially sought a woman believed to be Paddock's roommate, Marilou Danley, as a "person of interest." Detectives later made contact with her, and "do not believe she is involved with the shooting on The Strip."
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Cellphone video captures moment Vegas shooting started.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said an "excess of 10 rifles" were found in the room, but did not immediately reveal a motive. Paddock had been in the hotel room since September 28, according to Lombardo.
Authorities said two on-duty Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers were injured during the shooting. One is in stable condition after surgery, and the other sustained minor injuries. Two off-duty police officers attending the concert were killed.
President Trump tweeted his condolences to the victims of the Las Vegas massacre, saying "My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!"
The gunman, who fired down on the Route 91 Harvest Festival from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound just as police made entry to the room, according to LVMPD undersheriff Kevin McMahill.
Federal law enforcement sources told Fox News that Paddock "was known to local authorities" in Vegas, and multiple weapons were found in his hotel room.
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President Trump reacts to deadly Las Vegas mass shooting
At this time, federal officials do not see any connection to international terrorism and little is known about Paddock's motivation, sources said.
The gunman's brother, Eric Paddock, told reporters outside his Central Florida home early Monday "an asteroid just fell on us," and said Stephen Paddock has no history of mental illness.
Paddock said his brother is "just a guy" and he "freaked," and had retired to Vegas because he liked gambling.
The Department of Homeland Security said Monday morning that the department is "closely monitoring" and helping partners investigate the tragedy, but at this time has "no information to indicate a specific credible threat involving other public venues in the country."
LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 01: People scramble for shelter at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after apparent gun fire was heard on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A gunman has opened fire on a music festival in Las Vegas, leaving at least 20 people dead and more than 100 injured. Police have confirmed that one suspect has been shot. The investigation is ongoing. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
People scramble for shelter at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
People assist a wounded woman at the Tropicana during an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Stirp in Las Vegas Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Multiple victims were being transported to hospitals after a shooting late Sunday at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
People assist a wounded woman at the Tropicana during an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Stirp in Las Vegas Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke with Sheriff Lombardo offering his full support, Department of Justice officials told Fox News.
Authorities first received calls about an active shooting at about 10:08 p.m. Country music star Jason Aldean was performing at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when the gunfire erupted.
Aldean was performing his last song of the night. Initially, those in attendance said they thought the sound was firecrackers. But as the shots continued, Aldean stopped singing and some concertgoers could be heard yelling to each other to get down.
One witness told KSVN that he heard “hundreds of shots.” The gunfire was rapid and reportedly confused with firecrackers.
"It sounded like a machine gun," one vendor told Fox News. "It sounded like more than one machine gun."
Authorities said law enforcement swarmed the hotel and killed the gunman in a room on the 32nd floor. Responding officers used an explosive device to force the door open into the room, law enforcement officials told Fox News.
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Country singer Jake Owen, who performed before Aldean, told Fox News the gunfire was "non-stop."
"You couldn't tell where it was coming from. It was loud and non-stop," he said.
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LVMPD: Person-of-interest identified in Las Vegas shooting
Kodiak Yazzie, 36, said the music stopped temporarily and started up again before another round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.
"It was the craziest stuff I've ever seen in my entire life," Yazzie told the Associated Press. "You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay. You could see a flash- flash- flash- flash."
As the 40,000 fans in the crowd began to flee, Yazzie took cover and said he saw flashes of light coming from the Mandalay Bay hotel tower high above.
LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 01: People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after apparent gun fire was hear on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. A gunman has opened fire on a music festival in Las Vegas, leaving at least 20 people dead and more than 100 injured. Police have confirmed that one suspect has been shot. The investigation is ongoing. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)Slideshow
Photos: Las Vegas Shooting
Another concertgoer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the shots sounded like fireworks, and she hid in a sewer.
“It was a horror show,” Ivetta Saldana told the newspaper. “People were standing around, then they hit the floor.”
Retired FBI special agent and former national FBI spokesman John Iannarelli, who drove past the scene of the event just moments before the shooting took place, told Fox News the massacre was "obviously well-planned."
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Jason Aldean stage hand describes concert shooting.
Iannarelli added the gunman used “expensive guns and ammunition.”
Iannarelli noted that FBI and police are going to speak with every friend and relative, and are conducting forensic review of the suspect's computers and phones.
The shooting at the sold-out Route 91 Harvest festival was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Forty-nine people were killed when a gunman opened fire at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in June 2016.
Sunday's shooting came more than four months after a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. Almost 90 people were killed by gunmen inspired by Islamic State terror group at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris during a performance by Eagles of Death Metal in November 2015.
Fox News' Adam Housley, Jake Gibson, Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/02/las-vegas-shooting-at-least-50-dead-more-than-400-injured-in-massacre.html
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Wish I could say I was surprised, but this has really just become an everyday part of American life. Now there will be weeks worth of prayers and condolences, but ultimately nothing will come of it. Nothing will change, and in another few weeks we will be right back here doing the exact same thing.
What changes would you like to see?
Personally I would like to see the banning and confiscation of all fully and semi automatic weapons. Unfortunately that is not even remotely practical, so I will at least settle for renewing the assault weapons ban. But even that is far fetched. As I said, I am supremely confident that aside from condolences (a lot of good that does anyone) nothing will be done to even remotely try to reduce these types of incidents. Really, there is no point in even talking about mass shootings in America, they are just a staple of American life life baseball and apple pie.
Well, What's his name used Diesel Fuel and Cowshit to take down the Federal Building in Oklahoma. How do you stop it by confiscating weapons? Legal gunowners will be targeted, illegal gunowners? They will just come forward and turn them in, right? Because that has worked so well, in let's pick a city, how about Chicago?
It's the mind and the heart of a man (or a woman). Someone wants to inflict this kind of horror, they will find a way. Maybe it's time to try to figure out what makes people think that this is even remotely acceptable?
Yep.
And yet that political junk is still a step so far that it is nearly impossible. We are not even willing to take steps that have little to no practical effect, hence why the words of politicians when these things happen are not only hollow, but almost an insult to the victims.
And yet we still have mass killings on a regular basis, each one seemingly more deadly than the last. Clearly improved LE training is not the answer.
You did read where I said confiscation of all semi and automatic firearms, while the most desirable solution, is not even remotely practical right?
And what makes people think it is even remotely acceptable? Who knows, everyone has their own motivations, but what is painfully (really, lethally) obvious is that we make it as easy as possible for them to do it. So, let's just issue those condolences as usual and wait for the next one. It won't be long.
I know what you are saying and to a point I agree with you. This is such a touchy subject because both sides have excellent points. I support the second amendment and I am a gun owner, (many times over), but, I think the problem is the availability of firearms. If you look at states like Florida, for example? The gun laws are so lax you could drive a truck through them and Florida has one of the highest rates of gun violence in the country. It also has the highest rate of road rage incidence using a gun in the country. There is a coloration there. Since Rick Scott has taken office, he has dropped one gun law after another and the gun violence has risen exponentially. Gun laws DO work, but they have to;
1) Be in place.
2) Be enforced.
.
Australia had 4 mass shootings in 5 years. They were appalled and applied very strict gun laws and guess what? Not one mass shooting since. But we have 273 mass shootings in 278 days and no one wants to talk about restricting access to guns? Really? And for the record, I am not saying repeal or change the 2nd amendment....we just need better control of who CAN buy a gun.
True, but that shouldn't mean that we just allow people access to weapons because, "well, they will kill people anyway!!". That's like a doctor shooting someone to fix a broken toe.
In addition to what you typed, gun laws really need to be uniform across the nation and enforced equally across the nation in order for them to work. They don't do a whole lot of good if all a person has to do to purchase a firearm is drive a couple hours over state lines. That is a large part of the problem I think, gun laws in the US are just an absurd patch work that effectively makes any real enforcement impossible.
And that's the problem. If the 2nd Amendment covers the entire country, then maybe gun laws need to affect the entire country. And good to see you made it over here.
Assuming the statement is true, statements like this are a bit loaded. If true, who is to say that this increase in "gun violence" is not firearms being used in a justifiable way. By that I mean how many of these increased uses are justifiable uses of firearms by people defending their lives and or property because the law abiding residents of Florida have a great access to a means of defending themselves. For good or ill "stand you ground" and/or "castle" laws may also be skewing these statistics.
So, instead of punishing the offenders punish law abiding? That is what the Aussies did, it was unabashed gun grabbing.
We agree here but, I we have plenty of laws on the books and you alluded to it earlier, it is a matter of enforcement.
Thanks but, no thanks. Not interested in high population and liberal states dictating the who and how someone should own and use a firearm. I am sure the need and use for a firearm are much different in Montana, Texas or Alaska than they are in Los Angeles, New York City or Chicago. Thus the difference in local controls.
And hence why no regulation will ever be effective and things like this will simply continue completely unabated.
And I am not interested in conservative states dictating the who and how someone should use a firearm.
See how that works?
Did anyone notice? He shot up a country music festival. Some of the most America loving, patriotic people are country music aficionados. It's way too early to speculate, though NBC is shooter had heavy gambling losses, though not sure how it correlates to the shootings.
I don't see how the style of music people listen to defines how much they love the USA.
Sounds like he may have lost his shirt gambling, and flipped.
I'm wondering how much he spent on the ten guns he had. Seems to me that a good way to start digging yourself out of a gambling loss would be to sell the things you don't need, like 90% of his gun stash. This guy's actions are so nuts that he seems like the Manchurian candidate.
273 mass shooting in 278 days, not a gun problem....but 31 cases of illegal voting in 3.6 BILLION votes cast and we have a voter fraud problem? Really?