Police Search For Gunman’s Motive

Police are working to establish the motive behind a mass shooting which left at least 59 dead and another 527 injured at a Las Vegas concert. Gunman Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel towards an open-air music festival on Sunday evening.

Police found 23 guns in his hotel room, as well as “in excess of” 19 firearms and explosives at his Nevada home.

But as yet, no clear reason for the killing has emerged.

Investigators have found no link to international terrorism, despite a claim from so-called Islamic State. Some investigators have suggested psychological issues, but there is no confirmation of this. The shooter was not known to police. President Donald Trump described the attack as “pure evil” in an address from the White House on Monday.

What do we know of the gunman?

Stephen Paddock lived in a community of senior citizens in the small town of Mesquite, north-east of Las Vegas.

He reportedly lived with a woman called Marilou Danley who is out of the country in Japan, and does not appear to be involved, police said. Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said when police searched the property after the attack they found 19 “additional firearms, some explosives and several thousand rounds of ammo, along with some electronic devices we’re evaluating at this point”.

Officers also found ammonium nitrate in Paddock’s car. The explosive found in his home was tannerite, the sheriff said.

There is a second house in northern Nevada which Swat teams are due to check for booby-traps before carrying out a search , Sheriff Lombardo said.

David Famiglietti of the New Frontier Armory told the BBC that Paddock had purchased firearms at his store in North Las Vegas in the spring of this year, meeting all state and federal requirements, including an FBI background check.