Shooter kills 58 people in Vegas
AT LEAST 58 people were killed and over 500 injured when a gunman opened fire from a 32nd floor hotel room on a country music concert in Las Vegas in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
Police identified the heavily armed gunman behind the Sunday night massacre on the Las Vegas Strip – the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history – as a 64-year-old Nevada resident named Stephen Craig Paddock.
Police said Paddock killed himself before a SWAT team breached his room in the Mandalay Bay hotel overlooking the concert venue.
President Donald Trump denounced what he called “an act of pure evil” and said he would visit Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Trump did not make any
mention of the Islamic State claim that one of its “soldiers” who had “converted to Islam several months ago” was behind the shooting. IS provided no evidence to back up the claim made by its propaganda outlet Amaq.
Concert-goers screamed and fled in panic as a steady stream of automatic gunfire rang out from the hotel shortly after 10pm local time (0500 GMT yesterday).
Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said that at least eight rifles were recovered from Paddock’s hotel room. “We believe the individual killed himself prior to our entry,” Lombardo said.
Stephen Craig Paddock, who photographs showed as greying with a trimmed beard and moustache, was a former accountant and a licensed pilot with no criminal record, according to ABC News.
Eric Paddock, the gunman’s brother, said he was at a complete loss to understand what may have motivated the shooting.
“This is an asteroid falling out of the sky,” Eric Paddock told CBS News.
He also said that his brother had “no religious affiliation, no political affiliation”.
“He was my brother. He was a guy. He gambled,” Eric Paddock said.
He said his brother had no history of mental illness and was “not an avid gun guy at all”.
LasVegas police said at least 58 people had been killed and 515 had been hospitalised following the attack. They issued an appeal for blood donations.
Paddock resided in a new golf course development in the desert just outside Mesquite, Nevada, around 130 kilometres northeast of Las Vegas.
His female companion was initially listed as a person of interest by police but they said later she was not believed to be involved.
Police said 22,000 fans were attending the concert next to the Mandalay Bay as part of a three-day country music festival known as Route 91 when the gunfire erupted.
‘Like firecrackers’
Witnesses told how Paddock opened fire with an initial long burst, and then appeared to reload as he continued.
“We heard [what] sounded like a glass breaking, so you looked around to see what’s going on and then heard a pop, pop, pop,” Monique Dekerf told CNN.
“You’d think for a moment OK we’re fine, there’s no more gunfire, then it starts again.”
Her sister Rachel said it sounded like “the shots were coming from the right side . . . it sounded like they were right beside us too . . . it was right there”.
Best-selling country singer Jason Aldean was on stage and near the end of his concert when the shooting began. Aldean initially carried on playing when the first crackle of gunfire could be heard but then hurried off the stage once he realised it was a shooting.
Robert Hayes, a firefighter from Los Angeles who was watching near the front of the stage, said he first thought the gunfire was some kind of equipment malfunction.
Once he realised what was going on, he joined the first responders, donning one of their vests.
“Honestly I probably pronounced 15-20 people” dead, he said. “It was pretty much like a war scene inside.”
Emergency crews used anything on hand as makeshift stretchers, including tables and metal railings normally used to control the crowds, said Hayes.
Asked if he thought it was an inexperienced gunman, he responded: “With 30,000 people in the arena area, it was kind of like shooting goldfish . . . He didn’t have to be good.”
‘Beyond horrific’
The Las Vegas attack is the deadliest shooting in recent US history, exceeding the toll of 49 dead in an attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida in June 2016.
A shocked Aldean told his fans via Instagram he and his band was safe.
“Tonight has been beyond horrific,” the singer wrote. “It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night.”
Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” by the “senseless tragedy” while Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May called it an “appalling attack”.