Earlier today, A gunman opened fire at a concert in Las Vegas killed at least 58 people and injured more than 500 people.
Main story of the incident:
A gunman in a high-rise hotel overlooking the Las Vegas Strip opened fire at a country music festival late Sunday, killing at least 58 people and injuring hundreds of others in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
The gunman, identified by police as Stephen Paddock, was later found dead by officers on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said during a news briefing Monday.
The shooting marked the nation’s latest outbreak of gunfire and bloodshed to erupt in a public place, again spreading terror as an American city became a war zone. The carnage in Las Vegas surpassed the death toll of 49 people slain in June 2016 when a gunman in Orlando, who later said he was inspired by the Islamic State, opened fire inside a crowded nightclub.
Lombardo said the death toll had reached at least 58 by Monday morning, a number that could rise, as police are still investigating the scene. Lombardo also said an additional 515 people were injured, though he did not specify how many of the people were wounded by gunfire or injured in the chaos that followed.
Paddock, 64, was found dead in his hotel room by Las Vegas SWAT officers, police said. They believe Paddock, who had checked in on Thursday, took his own life.
Under the neon glow and glitz of the Vegas Strip, thousands of concertgoers who had gathered for a three-day music festival dove for cover or raced toward shelter when the gunfire began about 10 p.m. Sunday. Police said more than 22,000 people were at the concert when Paddock began firing round after round, shooting from an elevated position that left those on the ground as exposed targets.
Police believe Paddock, a local resident, was a “lone wolf” attacker. Lombardo did not give further details on Paddock’s background and possible motivation, saying that police “have no idea what his belief system was.”
“I can’t get into the mind of a psychopath,” Lombardo said during a later briefing Monday. He also said given that police believe Paddock was the sole shooter, “I don’t know how this could have been prevented.”
Police believe Paddock smashed the window of his room with something similar to a hammer before he began firing at the people below. The gunman was found with more than 10 rifles, Lombardo said, and he brought them all inside himself.
Relatives of Paddock’s said they were stunned by what happened. His brother, Eric, said their mother spoke to the FBI.
“She said, ‘I don’t understand why my son did this,'” Eric Paddock said Monday morning outside his home in Orlando. While his brother had some handguns, Eric Paddock but was shocked by the weaponry police described in Las Vegas.
Eric Paddock said he did not know of his brother having any mental illness, alcohol or drug problems. When he spoke to the FBI, Eric Paddock said he showed FBI agents three years of text messages from his brother, including one that mentioning winning $250,000 at a casino. Stephen Paddock played “high-stakes video poker,” Eric said, adding that he did not have any information suggesting the 64-year-old gunman had gambling debts or financial issues.
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