US vice president praises police response to Las Vegas massacre
US vice president Mike Pence praised the heroic response by police as the shooting massacre unfolded last week in Las Vegas.
“It was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions,” Mr Pence said as he addressed nearly 300 people at Las Vegas city hall on Saturday afternoon.
“Those we lost were taken before their time, but their names and their stories will forever be etched into the hearts of the American people.”
At the same time, federal agents started removing piles of backpacks, baby strollers and lawn chairs strewn over the site of a country music festival that Stephen Paddock fired on last Sunday night.
Investigators remain unclear about why the 64-year-old video poker player would shoot at the crowd from his 32nd-floor Mandalay Bay hotel room, killing 58 and wounding hundreds before killing himself.
But they believe a note found on a nightstand in Paddock’s hotel room contained a series of numbers that helped him to calculate a more precise aim, accounting for the trajectory of shots being fired from that height and the distance between his room and the concert, a law enforcement official said on Saturday.
The unity service came after dozens of people – many wearing shirts that said Vegas Strong – marched from Mandalay Bay to city hall.
After speeches from Mr Pence and other politicians, 58 doves were released into the air as someone shouted, “God bless America”.
Las Vegas mayor Carolyn Goodman told the audience that the focus needed to remain on the victims, not “that horrific, senseless animal”.
Lisa Rhoads-Shook, whose brother-in-law was inside the Mandalay Bay when the shooting started, said she wanted to attend the unity service to be part of the conversation about change.
“I’m so sad and it’s not fair, really, for us to experience another avoidable tragedy. We have to acknowledge that there is no better time to talk about gun control,” she said.
“I don’t think the founding fathers wanted the right to bear arms to become the right to build an arsenal in your home.”
Investigators have chased 1,000 leads and examined Paddock’s politics, finances, any possible radicalisation and his social behaviour – typical investigative avenues that have uncovered the motive in other shootings.
But Clark County undersheriff Kevin McMahill said there was still no clear motive.
Investigators remain unclear about why the 64-year-old would shoot at the crowd from his hotel room, killing 58