FA chief defends axing England women boss
Mark Sampson should have been sacked as England women’s football manager “three or four years ago”, the FA chairman has told The Daily Telegraph. Greg Clarke dismissed claims that his organisation wanted to “nobble” the investigation into Sampson’s controversial comments to black players.
JASON ALDEAN, the headline act at the Route 91 Harvest festival, was eight seconds into When She Says Baby when the first shots rang out.
“Some days it’s tough just gettin’ up,” sang Aldean to the 22,000 fans packed into the outdoor theatre in the shadow of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino Hotel in Las Vegas. As the band played and the star started to sing, the shooting began.
The distinct sound of automatic gunfire rang out in the night sky at just after 10.08pm on Sunday. Aldean appeared oblivious. “Throwin’ on these boots and makin’ that climb,” he continued as the bullets rained down.
When he got to the third line, his voice trailed off midway through. “Some days I’d rather be a no-show …” sang Aldean before he realised the horror unfolding in front of him. Aldean raced offstage and to sanctuary, later posting that he and his crew were safe.
The concertgoers had no such luck; they were under attack and didn’t stand a chance.
Jake Owen, a country singer on stage with Aldean when the shooting began, said it was like “shooting fish in a barrel from where he was”.
Mike Mcgarry, a financial adviser from Philadelphia, dived on top of his grown-up children to protect them.
“It was crazy – I laid on top of the kids. They’re 20. I’m 53. I lived a good life,” said Mr Mcgarry, his shirt covered in footmarks where he had been trampled as it finally dawned on the crowd to run for it.
Camera phone footage captured by Hannah Dorfman, a music industry insider stood close to the stage, recorded nine seconds of gunfire in the initial burst. “Get down. Stay down,” yells one concertgoer. Another screams: “Oh, my God.”
For the next 37 seconds, there is a merciful silence. But for the gunman firing from two windows on the 32nd floor of the gold-coloured Mandalay Bay hotel, it was just the beginning. By the end of the slaughter, at least 59 people would be killed and 527 injured, the worst gun massacre in modern American history.
The barrage of gunfire erupted again and again, for up to 10 minutes in total. Each burst lasted about 10 seconds as the shooter – 64-year-old Stephen Paddock – emptied a magazine and then reloaded or else reached for any one of as many as 20 weapons smuggled into his hotel suite 300ft up and some 400 yards from the stage.
Nevada has some of the most relaxed gun control laws in America and semiautomatic weapons – capable of firing 60 rounds a minute – can be bought over the counter without a licence.
One gun expert, listening to the audio tapes of the shooting, suggested one of the weapons may have been fully automatic – far more tightly regulated in the US – or else a semi-automatic rifle modified to fire more rapidly.
Such weapons have an effective range of hundreds of yards.
Down below, Paddock’s targets dived for cover, jumping under the stage or beneath parked cars for protection. “It sounded like fireworks,” said Steve Smith, 45, from Phoenix, Arizona. “People were just dropping to the ground. It just kept going on.
“Probably 100 shots at a time. It would sound like it was reloading and then it would go again,” Mr Smith said. “People were shot and trying to get out. A lot of people were shot.”
Kat Phifer, a bartender working at the festival, said: “Maybe on the third song, we heard what we thought was fireworks. We all looked towards where it was coming from, Mandalay Bay. I saw gunfire and everyone immediately fell to the floor.”
Miss Phifer and three colleagues dived behind the bar. “We were freaked out and didn’t know what to do and also in clear view of the shooter,” she posted on Facebook, letting friends know she had survived.
“Gunshots kept coming closer and closer and we were all trying to keep quiet. Five seconds pause, then another round of shots. Closer and closer.
“I was scared for my life. I was waiting for the bullets to hit us. It was a massacre,” she wrote.
At some stage, police ordered her and her friends to run for it. As she did so she passed five to seven bloodied victims lying on the ground in a heap. Kodiak Yazzie, 36, described hearing an initial burst, then a pause and then everyone began diving for cover. “It was the craziest stuff I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” he said. “You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay. You could see a flash-flash-flash-flash.”
Russell Black watched US service veterans in the crowd use first aid training to help the injured as the gunman continued to fire. “I saw a lot of exmilitary jump into gear and start plugging bullet holes with their fingers,” he said. “While everyone else was crouching, I saw police officers standing up as targets, just trying to direct people and tell them where to go. The amount of bravery I saw there, words can’t describe what it was like.
“He [Paddock] was just spraying the crowd, it was relentless, there was no stopping, maybe five or eight seconds to move from cover to cover to try and get out as he reloaded.”
Among those killed were at least two off-duty officers.
Laura Robson, the 23-year-old British tennis player, posted on social media: “I’m OK. We were right there … sounded like fireworks at first then everyone started running. Scary. My friend who was deeper in the crowd has been helping people who were shot. We’re all in shock.”
One survivor, not named, told US television of trying to drag victims under the stage for cover. A friend was shot three times but made it out alive.
The witness said: “My buddy got hit three times. We were diving for the ground. Lots of people got hit. We climbed over a fence and under the stage. One guy ended up dying in my arms; he was bleeding.”
Samantha Evans, 36, a holiday rep from Cardiff, told how she threw herself to the floor to dodge the bullets and watched in horror as a security guard was shot just feet from her.
She said: “At first I thought it was fireworks but then I heard screams as people were being shot. We all ducked down as low as we could, I was on the floor. It went on for 10 minutes but it felt like forever.” Ms Evans had taken her mother, Charley Wilson, to the Las Vegas country music festival as a treat for her 60th birthday. Mrs Wilson was in her mobility scooter along with 30 other disabled people on a raised platform for a better view. “The gunfire sounded really close, we just ducked down and prayed,” Ms Evans said.
As the crowds scrambled for safety, the carnage continued. Photographs showed victims lying on the ground, covered in blood, glasses and bottles strewn among them.
Jose Baggett, 31, who was in the lobby of the pyramid-shaped Luxor hotel-casino, described a stampede as crowds piled in sobbing and distraught.
Mr Baggett described “a half-mile of police cars” backed up along with armoured personnel vehicles and ambulances. In Las Vegas, police broadcast bulletins urging locals to stay at home and not be tempted to race to the scene with their own weapons and take matters into their own hands.
Several SWAT teams – short for Special Weapons and Tactics Team – swarmed the area. Specialised officers raced into the hotel. The entire area was put into lockdown. Witnesses listening to police radio overheard officers describing being “pinned down” by gunfire.
Nearby Interstate 15 was closed to traffic and flights into Mccarran International Airport were briefly diverted amid reports of people fleeing on to the runway. Las Vegas was under attack.
The SWAT teams went floor to floor clearing out the hotel. By the time they reached the 32nd floor, 72 minutes after police received the first 911 call, Paddock had already taken his own life.
“We believe the individual killed himself prior to our entry,” said Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Photographs showed two smashed out windows on the 32nd floor, presumably from where Paddock took aim.
Police said they believed Paddock had checked into the hotel last Thursday, giving him three days to prepare for the attack, including possibly setting up a fixed position that enabled him to keep stable as he fired.
In the aftermath, the police hunted for Marilou Danley, 62, reportedly Paddock’s girlfriend but later found her out of the country.
Sheriff Lombardo insisted this was a “lone wolf” attack but the search will go on for a motive. Paddock will go down in history as the perpetrator of the worst single mass shooting in US history. Why at the age of 64 he did so will only become clear in the days and weeks to come.
‘Gunshots kept coming closer and closer. Five seconds pause, then another round of shots. It was a massacre’