$1.50 ‘Unimaginable’
At least 59 dead, 527 injured on Strip; gunman takes his own life Shooter had at least 23 guns in hotel room, 19 more at home Girlfriend not a suspect; motive remains unknown
The nation awoke Monday to the numbing news that the worst mass shooting in modern American history had ravaged the Las Vegas Strip.
It was a deadly ambush in a city built as an open invitation to the world.
“I just kept thinking to myself, ‘This isn’t real. This is not happening. This is not real,’” Lisa Schau, of Sacramento, told the Las Vegas Review-journal near the scene. “I just kept thinking that over and over. And it was.”
But the staggering carnage — at least 59 dead and 527 injured — brought out the best in Las Vegas Valley residents. They rushed to help the wounded; donated blood, supplies and money; and prayed en masse for victims and their families.
SHOOTING
A Mesquite man perched on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay shot through his corner suite’s windows, then sprayed bullets into a crowd of thousands at an outdoor country music festival late Sunday, just east of the hotel.
It was confusion, then chaos. Some attendees thought fireworks were ringing out just as Jason Aldean began singing the first few lines of his hit “When She Says Baby” at the Route 91 Harvest festival. But as the rapid-fire shots continued and people began falling, the crowd collectively realized the horror that was happening. And they ran.
First responders descended on the scene. Civilians did their part, too, taking truckloads of wounded to local trauma units. The injured were moved in wheelbarrows and on luggage carts, and more than
100 people were treated at University Medical Center alone.
Before the sun rose Monday, Sheriff Joe Lombardo stood in the dark parking lot of Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, steeling himself as he explained to the public and global news media that the shooter, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, had acted alone.
Shortly after, Gov. Brian Sandoval called it a “cowardly, despicable act.”
‘We’re angry’
On Monday afternoon, Sandoval declared a state of emergency and a public health and medical disaster in Clark County.
“We’re angry. We’re grieving. Confused,” the governor said. “People are hurting.”
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said the city has a broken heart, “but it has bonded us so tightly.”
“We will not be tarnished by this sick, horrible human being,” Goodman said.
About an hour after shots first rang out, officers closed in on Paddock’s room, which he checked into on Thursday, Lombardo said. In seconds, Paddock shot through the door, injuring a security guard. Then he turned the gun on himself.
Inside, police found scopes and at least 23 firearms. Later, investigators found ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound that can be used in homemade bombs, inside Paddock’s car at Mandalay Bay.
On the streets below, red-andblue lights speckled the Strip, drowning out its famous neon. Many who escaped the venue or ran from casinos in the confusion walked aimlessly. Some dragged luggage, others still wore blooddrenched clothing, the color drained from their faces.
Anxious and weary
While University Medical Center absorbed the worst of the wounded, Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center quickly became overwhelmed, too.
About 12 hours after the ordeal began, Deserie Bohl, 35, sat in the east valley hospital’s small surgical waiting room as her husband underwent surgery. Next to her sat several others, praying and checking their phones. Some paced, looking anxious and weary. The silence was deafening.
Occasionally, a doctor or surgeon would pop in, calling out the name of a patient. Like clockwork, a swarm of loved ones would rush over, huddling to hear the news.
Robert Kyander, of San Bernardino, California, sat in limbo, his head down. His daughter, Lauren, and her boyfriend, Zach, both 21, had been at the festival all weekend. Zach was shot in the back.
Hours earlier, the 55-year-old Kyander had been at home, watching the Sunday night news when headlines about the shooting began ticking across his screen.
Panicked, he bolted to Las Vegas. Just before he left, he got a text from Zach:
“Hey this is Zach, I got shot in the back, but I made your daughter run