‘A nation in mourning’
Trump visits Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — Solemn in the face of tragedy, President Donald Trump visited hospital bedsides and a vital police base in stricken Las Vegas on Wednesday, offering prayers and condolences to the victims of Sunday night’s shooting massacre, along with the nation’s thanks to first responders and doctors who rushed to save lives.
“America is truly a nation in mourning,” the president declared, days after a gunman on the 32nd floor of a hotel and casino opened fire on the crowd at an outdoor country music festival below. The rampage killed at least 58 people and injured more than 500, many from gunfire, others from chaotic efforts to escape.
In Las Vegas, Trump spoke of the families who “tonight will go to bed in a world that is suddenly empty.”
Wednesday night, the FBI and the Las Vegas sheriff’s department revealed more details about what happened Sunday night.
Authorities say the Las Vegas shooter sprayed 200 rounds of gunfire into the hallway when a security guard approached his hotel room, but the guard was only hit in the leg.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters Wednesday that the wounded guard then helped a group of police officers clear out rooms on the 32nd floor of the hotel.
He said Steven Paddock planned to survive and escape but didn't say how.
Paddock had 1,600 rounds of ammunition and several containers of an explosive commonly used in target shooting that totaled 50 pounds in his car, Lombardo said.
An ATF official said Paddock had been stockpiling guns since 1982 and bought 33 firearms in the last year.
Jill Snyder, the special agent in charge at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said in a TV interview that Paddock purchased 33 firearms, mostly rifles, between October 2016 and Sept. 28, three days before the attack.
Snyder said authorities wouldn’t get notified of the purchase of rifles, but would get notified if there was a multiple sale of two or more handguns in one purchase.
Snyder said Paddock had rigged 12 semi-automatic rifles with devices that allowed the guns to fire like an automatic weapon.
Lombardo said that none of the cameras Paddock put up in the hotel room where he unleashed gunfire onto a concert crowd were
recording.
The sheriff also gave a timeline of the shooting. The first shots began at 10:05 p.m. Sunday and ended 10 minutes later.
Other targets?
The country festival may not have been the only target the shooter considered. Lombardo said the Las Vegas shooter rented a room in downtown around the same time as an alternative music festival held Sept. 22-24.
Earlier Wednesday, Paddock’s girlfriend said in a statement that she knew him “as a kind, caring, quiet man.”
Marilou Danley’s lawyer read the statement to reporters in Los Angeles, where she was questioned by FBI agents.
Danley said Paddock found her a cheap ticket to the Philippines and wanted her to take a trip home to see relatives. She says he wired her money while she was there to buy a house for herself and her family.
The statement says she worried that Paddock wanted to break up with her.
She returned to the U.S. Tuesday night from the Philippines, where she was visiting family.
Nevada gambling regulators are poring through
records to try to find out more about Paddock.
Investigators with the state’s Gaming Control Board are looking for any disputes Paddock may have had as a casino patron and for mandatory transaction reports he made involving more than $10,000.
Trump on gun control
As he has done all week, Trump batted away questions about whether the shooting warranted taking a fresh look at tougher gun controls.
“We’re not going to talk about that today,” he said. “We won’t talk about that.”
Republicans who control Congress have made clear they have no intention of taking up stricter gun control measures in the shooting’s aftermath. However, senior GOP lawmakers said late Wednesday they could consider legislation banning “bump stocks” like the shooter in Las Vegas apparently used to effectively convert semiautomatic rifles into fully automated weapons.
Trump, elected with strong support from the National Rifle Association and with a pledge to protect the Second Amendment, had endorsed a prohibition on assault weapons in a 2000 book.