Weapons, explosives recovered
Search in gunman's house, hotel room
LAS VEGAS — Police recovered a huge cache of guns and explosives yesterday from the Las Vegas hotel room and home of the man accused of killing at least 59 people and injuring over 500 in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.
US officials reacted cautiously meanwhile to an Islamic State claim that Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, had carried out Sunday night's massacre on the Las Vegas Strip on behalf of the jihadist group.
Police said Paddock, a retired accountant with no criminal record, smashed windows in his 32nd floor hotel room shortly after 10:00 pm and trained bursts of automatic weapons fire on thousands of people attending a country music concert below.
Investigators recovered at least 16 guns, including assault rifles, from Paddock's room at the Mandalay Bay hotel, and another 18 firearms along with bomb-making materials at one of his two homes.
Country music star Jason Aldean rushed off stage when the shooting began, and concert-goers scattered in panic, frantically seeking cover as bullets rained down from above.
"We saw bodies down. We didn't know if they had fallen or had been shot," said Ralph Rodriguez, an IT consultant from the Pomona Valley, near Los Angeles, who was at the concert with a group of friends.
"People started grabbing their loved-ones and just strangers, and trying to help them get out of the way," Rodriguez said.
The Islamic State group claimed that Paddock was one of its "soldiers" but the FBI said it had found no such connection so far and the local sheriff described him as a lone "psychopath."
Police said Paddock killed himself before a SWAT team breached his hotel room overlooking the country music venue.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said a security guard was shot in the leg as officers stormed the room where Paddock had been staying since September 28.
He said a search of Paddock's house in Mesquite, Nevada, 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas, recovered "in excess of 18 additional firearms, some explosives and several thousand rounds of ammo."
Lombardo said investigators had discovered several pounds of an explosive called tannerite in the Mesquite home, as well as ammonium nitrate, a type of fertilizer, in the gunman's car.
The sheriff said the death toll had risen to 59, while 527 people had been injured.
Lombardo said the authorities had found no manifesto or anything else to explain Paddock's actions.
"This individual is a lone wolf and I don't know how it could have been prevented," he said. "I can't get into the mind of a psychopath at this point."
President Donald Trump denounced what he called "an act of pure evil" and said he would visit Las Vegas on Wednesday.
But the White House pushed back at calls to reopen the US debate on tighter gun controls.
"A motive is yet to be determined and it would be premature for us to discuss policy when we don't fully know all of the facts or what took place last night," Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.