Las Vegas shooting: At least 58 dead in massacre Trump calls 'act of pure evil'
A gunman turned a Las Vegas concert into a killing field Sunday night from his perch on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, using at least 10 guns to rain down a steady stream of fire, murdering at least 58 people and injuring more than 500 others in the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history.
Stephen Paddock as seen in a family photo. (Facebook)
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."
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said an "excess of 10 rifles" were found in the room, but did not immediately reveal a motive, saying "I can't get into the mind of a psychopath at this point."
Paddock had been in the hotel room since September 28, according to Lombardo.The sheriff said a check of federal and state databases showed Paddock was not on law enforcement authorities' radar before the bloodbath.
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 said the mass shooting "was an act of pure evil," and praised first responders in an address to the nation.
"To the families of the victims, we are praying for you and we are here for you," Trump said, adding that he will visit Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with first responders and families.
Blown out windows at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. (Fox News)
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.
At this time, federal officials do not see any connection to international terrorism and little is known about Paddock's motivation, federal law enforcement sources said. The Islamic State terror group took credit for the Las Vegas shooting, saying the gunman converted to Islam months ago, but provided no evidence back up the claim.
FBI Special agent-in-charge Aaron Rouse said at a news conference the agency has "determined to this point no connection with an international terrorist group."
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."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke with Sheriff Lombardo offering his full support, Department of Justice officials told Fox News.
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. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Sessions said in a statement he met with FBI Director Christopher Wray early Monday morning.
"To the many families whose lives have been changed forever by this heinous act, we offer you our prayers and our promise that we will do everything in our power to get justice for your loved ones," Sessions said in a statement.
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval called the massacre a cowardly, despicable act and praised first responders, saying they saved scores of lives.
"We're angry, we're grieving, we're confused, people are hurting," he said.
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.
The scene of the shooting in Las Vegas. (Fox News)
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 a local television station 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."
Firearms experts hesitated Monday to attribute the shooter’s rapid fire from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino to an automatic weapon’s fire.
Automatic weapons, sometimes referred to as machine guns, fire a stream of bullets when the trigger is pulled once and held. They differ from semiautomatic weapons, which require one trigger pull for each round fired.
Ryan Cleckner, a former U.S. Army Ranger sniper and author of “Long Range Shooting Handbook,” said the seemingly inconsistent rate of Paddock’s shooting may indicate he was using a device to mimic full-auto fire.
These devices, such as a Slide Fire stock, are legal and can be bought for about $300.
Police officers stand at the scene of a shooting near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
"These devices take advantage of a firearm’s natural recoil to ‘bump-fire’ the firearm thereby mimicking a machine gun without meeting the legal definition,” Cleckner told Fox News.
Equipping an AR-15, for example, with a Slide Fire stock would be far cheaper and easier than buying a machine gun. Machine guns in the U.S. can cost upwards of $15,000 and require the buyer to undergo a personally intrusive and months-long application process with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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.
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.
Some concertgoers stayed behind to offer help to those around them.
“Everybody I saw breathing, I helped,” a concertgoer told Fox News.
The wife of a Tennessee man killed by the Las Vegas shooter said her husband died because he saved her from being shot. Heather Gulish Melton told Fox affiliate WZTVthat her husband, Sonny Melton of Paris, Tennessee, was among the 50 killed Sunday night.
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.
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."
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 FBI is asking for anyone with videos or photos concerning Las Vegas attack to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or (800) 225-5324.
The hotel said around 11 a.m. ET security personnel have lifted all restrictions on access to Mandalay Bay and other MGM Resorts, and that guests may return to their rooms
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, Catherine Herridge, Brooke Singman, Travis Fedschun, and The Associated Press contributed to this report
Concerts are a celebration of music and life and community. They represent some of our favorite moments and give us the chance to share them with our favorite people. Our hearts are heavy with the news of last night’s senseless violence in Las Vegas. To those affected, we mourn with you.
Today you may feel especially alone. You may want to turn to coping skills you know are harmful. You may want to give up on hope.
If you’re feeling this way, we encourage you to please reach out. Hope is real. Help is real. Nothing and no one can change that.
We share resources available to you on our FIND HELP page here.
For those in Las Vegas, we list several resources in your community that are there to care for you.
You can also text “TWLOHA” to 741741 to get connected with a trained crisis counselor via @CrisisTextLine. It’s free and available 24/7.
Please take care of yourself today.
1. How did he get that many weapons into his room without being noticed?
Too many rumors are swirling around regarding the tragedy in Vegas from Sunday night. Let me start by dispelling with some of the questions floating around on the internet:
1. How did he get that many weapons into his room without being noticed?
A: With a luggage cart and ten suitcases over 3 days.
2. How did he fire off that many rounds without training?
A: A monkey can pull a trigger; and, who says he didn't have practice?
3. How was he able to kill that many people in such a short time?
A: He had 11 minutes firing on near full-auto (using a bump fire device) into a crowd of people that had no idea where the fire was coming from.
4. Why did he have so many weapons?
A: First, he was a psychopath. Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said it best, "No Ma'am, I can't get into the mind of a psychopath at this point."
Second, he probably thought he would be there for an extended period of time and perhaps thought he would heat up one or more guns. Maybe he wasn't good at changing magazines? Again, first answer is always a fit. Seriously, how can we apply reason to a psychopath?
5. How did he get his hands on fully automatic firearms?
A: Investigation has determined that he had bump fire or slide fire devices on 12 of his firearms, which make them sound like a full-auto and operate much like a full-auto. They are approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and are easily available (until now).
6. How was he able to remove a window with 800 pounds of hurricane glass without training? (I know, seriously, this was a question.)
A: With a hammer.
7. How did he get up 32 floors with 400 pounds of equipment?
A: With an elevator and luggage cart.
8. What about the sounds of gunfire coming from other directions?
A: It was an echo.
9. How does one man come to own $100K worth of weapons without being noticed?
A: He was rich. As far as what we know right now, all guns were purchased legally over a period of time from multiple vendors. Every dealer and serious collector at a gun show has that many or more, and they are not psychopathic mass murderer candidates.
10: How is it possible that he killed/injured so many in such a short time...without training?
A: He was able to fire uninhibited an unreported number of rounds into a massive crowd, where he couldn't miss hitting something. When we know more, it is likely that many of the injuries were not from gunfire but from the panic that ensued. However, considering the rate of fire and the mass of the crowd, it wouldn't be the least bit unreasonable to think that 50-70% of the bullets hit something.
11. What gun laws could have prevented this?
A: None. He had no criminal background.
12. What about laws preventing mentally ill people from getting firearms?
A: How does one accurately measure another's current mental stability or future propensity to become a psychopath among the group of every potential firearm purchaser?
13. What about the unidentified and unverified woman who told the crowd that a lot of people were going to die?
Possible answers: 1. It is made up nonsense. 2. She was drunk.
14. What about the shots coming from other floors?
A. Echoes, reflections of other things, reflections of the shooter across multiple reflective surfaces (Las Vegas is mostly glass)...
Response questions: Where in these locations was glass broken? Where in these locations were reports of gunfire from adjacent rooms? (That's how the shooter was quickly located.) How did these mysterious shooters so quickly police up all their brass and keep the fire alarms from going off with all the smoke?
15. How did the shooter manage to record a video of himself?
A. Ummmmm, I don't know, a tripod?
Finally, some questions for the conspiracy theorists.
How do hundreds of law enforcement officers secretly conspire to cover up evidence in one of the nation's worst modern massacres? What would be their motivation? Would conspiracy advocates be satisfied when they see video evidence of the shooter by himself committing the act and ending it by putting a gun in his mouth?
I could go on, but you get the picture. Please folks, stop with the conspiracy insanity and let the investigators do their jobs. Seriously, just stop.
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