MOWN DOWN IN ACT OF PURE EVIL
Lone gunman kills 59 and injures 527 He opened fire on concert from 32nd floor of Vegas hotel Police found killer shot dead – and up to 20 weapons in room ‘Millionaire’ was gambling $30k a day
AMERICA was last night trying to understand why a 64-year-old accountant massacred 59 concertgoers in the deadliest mass shooting in its history.
Stephen Paddock, who lived in a retirement community, mowed down hundreds of victims in a hail of gunfire at the end of a Las Vegas country music festival.
Using a cache of assault rifles he sprayed bullets from his 32nd-floor hotel room. At least 527 were injured in the carnage on Sunday night local time.
Donald Trump described the atrocity as ‘an act of pure evil’.
Paddock’s family said he held no extreme views and had no history of mental illness. Police said he was not connected to any militant group.
That left speculation as to whether his actions were a response to gambling debts. He was, however, said to have become a multimillionaire through property investment.
Paddock rented connecting rooms at the Mandalay Bay resort and used a hammer to smash holes in the windows so he could fire at will at the crowds 400ft below him.
Many in the 22,000 audience thought the gunfire was fireworks until they saw bloodied victims dropping to the ground.
Survivors hid behind walls and under cars. Others dragged the injured to safety while Paddock stopped to reload.
Many were trampled in a stampede to escape the bloodshed at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
The mayhem lasted for 72 minutes and ended only when police burst into Paddock’s hotel room to find he had shot himself. Ten to 20 military- style automatic weapons lay by his side.
The death toll, which is expected to rise, surpassed the shooting at a nightclub in Orlando in June 2016 that cost 49 lives. In other developments:
President Trump faced criticism over his failure to challenge the country’s lax gun laws;
UK soldiers on leave in Las Vegas rushed to help victims;
Paramedics used wheelbarrows to take the injured to safety;
Paddock’s brother Eric said his involvement had struck the family like an ‘asteroid’.
Paddock, who lived in Mesquite, an hour’s drive north-east of Las Vegas, is understood to have checked in to the Mandalay Bay on Thursday and spent the weekend planning the attack.
His live-in Australian girlfriend Marilou Danley was visiting family in the Philippines at the time of the massacre. Police initially said they were hunting her as a ‘ companion’ of his. It has emerged Paddock, childless and divorced had used her ID in the casinos over the past few days.
His 55-year- old brother Eric said: ‘We have no idea how this happened. It’s like an asteroid just fell on top of our family and we have no reason, rhyme, rationale, excuse – there’s just nothing. Something happened, he snapped or something.’
He said they had last been in contact a few weeks ago when the gunman texted him after Hurricane Irma to check on the welfare of their 90- year- old mother. Speaking from his home in Orlando, he said: ‘He was a wealthy guy who liked to play video poker, he went on cruises. He sent his mum huge boxes of cookies. He doesn’t even have parking tickets.’
He admitted his brother had owned two handguns and a rifle, but nothing like the arsenal that was discovered in Las Vegas. ‘He’s not an avid gun guy at all. He never hit anyone, he’s never drawn a gun,’ he added.
Paddock is understood to have placed a large number of bets totalling up to $30,000 (£22,600) a day in recent weeks. It remains unclear whether he won or lost.
As investigators continued to unravel his background, terrifying phone footage taken by revellers at the concert emerged.
As the bullets continued to rain down on to the crowd, many risked their lives to save those who had been left with horrific injuries. Some ran back into the crowd, despite managing to escape themselves.
Others flagged down passing cars and asked drivers to help take the wounded to hospital.
One woman told of how she had crammed six strangers into her car to keep them away from the gunfire. Three off-duty personnel from 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards were in the city
‘Bullets rained down’
when the gunman opened fire and gave life-saving first aid.
It emerged that one man died after being shot in the back as he pushed his wife away from danger. Heather Melton said she had felt the bullet strike her nurse husband Sonny.
Mrs Melton, from Tennessee, said: ‘Sonny was the most kindhearted, loving man I have ever met. He saved my life and lost his.’ One trauma surgeon on duty yesterday described the scene at a hospital where the wounded were being taken as like a ‘war zone’. Jay Coates said: ‘Every bed in the trauma bay was occupied. People were lined up in hallways.’
British tennis player Laura Robson was among those who fled the festival. The 23-yearold – in the US for tournaments – was not hurt.