FBI begins removing belongings left after assault
LAS VEGAS — Nearly a week after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, federal agents on Saturday started hauling away the piles of backpacks, purses, baby strollers and lawn chairs left behind when frantic concert-goers scrambled to escape raining bullets from a gunman who was shooting from his high-rise hotel suite.
FBI agents fanned out across the crime scene near the Las Vegas Strip throughout the week stacking the belongings left from last Sunday’s shooting into more than a dozen large piles. On Saturday morning, the agents were seen loading the items onto dollies and into the back of a white truck. Authorities have said they plan to return the belongings to people in the next week.
Vice President Mike Pence praised the heroic response by police and the resolve of the American people at a prayer service Saturday afternoon at Las Vegas City Hall before organizers released 58 white doves in memory of each victim killed.
“It was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions,” Pence said as he addressed nearly 300 people. “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.”
The unity service came after dozens of people — many wearing shirts that said “Vegas Strong” — marched from Mandalay Bay to City Hall.
“On Sunday night, Las Vegas came face-to-face with pure evil, but no evil, no act of violence, will ever diminish the strength and goodness of the American people,” Pence said. “In the depths of horror, we will always find hope in the men and women who risk their lives for ours.”
Meanwhile, investigators remained stumped about what drove gunman Stephen Paddock, a reclusive 64-yearold high-stakes gambler, to begin shooting at the crowd at a country music festival from his 32nd-floor hotel suite, killing 58 and wounding hundreds before taking his own life.
Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said investigators had “looked at literally everything” and still do not have a clear motive.