The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
At least 59 killed in Las Vegas as investigation continues.
LAS VEGAS — A gunman in a high-rise hotel overlooking the Las Vegas Strip opened fire on a country music festival late Sunday, killing at least 59 people and injuring hundreds of others in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
The gunman, identified by police as Stephen Paddock, was later found dead by officers on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said during a news briefing Monday.
The massacre marked the nation’s latest outbreak of gunfire and bloodshed to erupt in a public place, again spreading terror in an American city transformed into a war zone. The carnage in Las Vegas surpassed the 49 people slain in June 2016 when a gunman in Orlando, who later said he was inspired by the Islamic State, opened fire inside a crowded nightclub.
Lombardo said investigators could not immediately identify a motive. He said 527 people were injured, though he did not specify how many were wounded by gunfire or injured in the chaos that followed. Clark County Fire Chief Greg Cassell said officials were seeing a “wide range” of injuries, including gunshot victims as well as people injured by shrapnel, trampling or getting hurt jumping fences attempting to escape.
Paddock, 64, was found dead in his hotel room by Las Vegas SWAT officers, police said. They believe Paddock, who had checked in Thursday and brought a cache of guns, took his own life in Room 135 before officers entered.
Under the neon glow and glitz of the Vegas Strip, thousands of concertgoers who had gathered for a three-day music festival dove for cover or raced toward shelter when the gunfire began about 10 p.m. Sunday. Police said more than 22,000 people were at the concert when Paddock began firing round after round, shooting from an elevated position that left those on the ground effectively helpless. The typical advice for reacting to an active shooter — “run, hide or fight” — was rendered moot, as many in the packed crowd could not easily run or hide, nor were they able to fight back at someone firing from so far away.
Police described Paddock as a “lone wolf ” attacker. Lombardo did not give further details on Paddock’s background and possible motivation, saying police “have no idea what his belief system was.”
Authorities found a small arsenal inside Paddock’s hotel room. Officers found about 20 firearms, according to people familiar with the case. One of the weapons he apparently used in the attack was an AK-47-style rifle, with a stand used to steady it for firing, these people said.
Lombardo said authorities at the gunman’s home found more than 18 guns as well as explosives and “several thousand rounds of ammo,” along with unspecified electronic devices they were evaluating.
Gun purchase records suggest Paddock legally bought more than two dozen firearms over a period of years, according to a person close to the probe.
Because Paddock was a high roller at the Vegas casinos, investigators are also scouring his records to try to determine if he was facing financial strains, according to these people.
Relatives of Paddock’s said they were stunned by what happened. Paddock had retired and lived in Mesquite, Texas, for several years before moving to the Nevada town with the same name. Relatives described him as a quiet man, a licensed pilot who liked to gamble. His brother, Eric, said their mother spoke to the FBI.
“She said, ‘I don’t understand why my son did this,’ ” Eric Paddock said Monday morning outside his home in Orlando, Fla. While his brother had some handguns, Eric Paddock but was shocked by the weaponry police described in Las Vegas.
Eric Paddock said he did not know of his brother having any mental illness, alcohol or drug problems. When he spoke to the FBI, Eric Paddock said he showed FBI agents three years of text messages from his brother, including one that mentioning winning $250,000 at a casino. Stephen Paddock played “high stakes video poker,” Eric said, adding that he did not have any information suggesting the 64-yearold gunman had gambling debts or financial issues.
Their father, Benjamin, was one of the FBI’s most-wanted fugitives decades ago, a convicted bank robber described in one wanted poster as “psychopathic” with suicidal tendencies. Eric Paddock told reporters that Benjamin, their father, was not around much during their childhood. In the initial chaotic aftermath of the shooting, authorities sought a woman named Marilou Danley, described only as Paddock’s “traveling companion.” Lombardo said during a briefing that investigators spoke with Danley, who was found outside the country, and do not believe she was involved in the shooting, though she remained a person of interest.
Her relationship with Stephen Paddock was not immediately known, but they lived at the same address in Mesquite, Nevada, according to public records. Lombardo said police in Mesquite searched Paddock’s home on Monday.
Police in Las Vegas had only minimal interactions with Paddock before the shooting, Lombardo said.
A spokesman for defense giant Lockheed Martin said in a statement that Paddock worked for the company for three years in the 1980s.
“Stephen Paddock worked for a predecessor company of Lockheed Martin from 1985 until 1988,” the statement said. “We’re cooperating with authorities to answer questions they may have about Mr. Paddock and his time with the company.”
On Monday President Donald Trump praised the “miraculous” speed with which local law enforcement responded to the shooting, which he decried as an unfathomable attack on innocents gathered for a concert.
“It was an act of pure evil,” Trump said during remarks from the White House. “We cannot fathom their pain, we cannot imagine their loss.”
Trump ordered flags flown at halfstaff and said he would visit Las Vegas on Wednesday.
Federal homeland security officials said there were no specific, credible threats to other public venues around the country, while federal agents headed to Las Vegas to support the local police leading the investigation.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it dispatched agents and began “conducting urgent traces on firearms” recovered after the shooting. FBI criminal investigators — rather than those in the bureau’s National Security Branch — are also helping local police in the case, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday in multiple messages through its Amaq News Agency. In the messages, the group said the shooter was one of its “soldiers” and had recently converted to Islam, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist groups.