‘An act of pure evil’
♦las Vegas gunman kills 59 in America’s worst mass-shooting ♦attacker lay in wait for days in hotel with arsenal of weapons ♦trump condemns massacre as Isil claims responsibility
A “LONE WOLF” gunman carried out America’s deadliest mass shooting in a meticulously planned attack after waiting for three days in a hotel suite before striking at a festival crowd of 22,000.
Stephen Paddock, 64, killed at least 59 people and injured a further 527 when he fired on concert-goers from the vantage point of a 32nd-floor hotel room in Las Vegas.
Armed with as many as 20 weapons, including automatic and semi-automatic rifles, Paddock opened fire at 10.08pm on Sunday (5.08am UK time) in a shooting spree that lasted between five and 10 minutes.
As police prepared to storm his hotel room, Paddock committed suicide by turning one of the guns on himself.
Donald Trump described the massacre as an “act of pure evil” but sidestepped calls for tighter gun laws. His spokesman later said Mr Trump stood by the Second Amendment which guarantees the “right to bear arms”.
Isil repeatedly said it was responsible for the attack, claiming that Paddock had converted to Islam in the past few months. The terrorist group described him as a “martyr”, who was using the Arabic name Abu Abdul al-bar al-amriki. Both police and the FBI said they were still seeking a motive and added that Paddock was not known to be connected to any terrorist group.
Police said Paddock had checked into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino Hotel on Thursday and then waited until the final act of the last night of a three-day country music festival when crowds were at their peak.
Joseph Lombardo, the local sheriff for Clark County, said: “Right now, we believe it’s a sole actor, a lone-wolf-type actor.”
Aaron Rouse, an FBI special agent, said: “As this event unfolds, we have determined to this point no connection with an international terrorist group.”
One possible theory, according to local reports, was that Paddock had made “several large gambling transactions in recent weeks”, suggesting he may have been a disgruntled punter who had racked up huge debts. His brother, Eric Paddock, last night said he had been a multimillionaire real-estate investor.
An official speaking to Reuters said Paddock, who had no known criminal record, had a “history of psychological problems”. Despite this, he bought his arsenal legally, including hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Paddock’s father was a “psychopathic” serial bank robber who was
once on the FBI’S 10 most wanted list. Eric Paddock said his brother’s massacre was baffling. “We have no idea. We’re horrified. We’re bewildered and our condolences go out to the victims,” he said.
President Trump condemned the shooting, saying: “He [Paddock] brutally murdered more than 50 people and wounded hundreds more. It was an act of pure evil.”
He added: “To the families of the victims: We are praying for you and we are here for you, and we ask God to help see you through this very dark period.”
Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened... by this senseless tragedy”, while Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, said: “The United Kingdom stands with the American people against this indiscriminate violence.”
The Foreign Office was trying to establish if any British citizens had been killed or wounded.
Jason Aldean, the country and western star, was on stage when Paddock started firing on the venue, about 400 yards from his hotel room. Video footage shows him diving for cover. Crowds ran, scaling fences to seek refuge under the stage or beneath parked cars close to the venue. Some were trampled in the race for survival.
Police said they found more than 19 rifles in the gunman’s room, according to The New York Times. They included two weapons mounted on tripods at the windows and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Police last night recovered additional weapons, explosives and ammunition from Paddock’s home. Witnesses praised the heroic actions of military veterans in the crowd who used their skills to save lives “by plugging bullet-holes with their fingers”. Among them were three off-duty British soldiers from 1st Bn Queen’s Dragoon Guards in Las Vegas, on leave after a training exercise in the California desert, who treated casualties in the aftermath of the massacre.
Off-duty police officers, at least one of whom was killed, bravely stood tall among the audience, making themselves targets by doing so, in order to direct music fans to safety.
In its claim, Isil said that Paddock, who lived in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, about 80 miles from Las Vegas, was a recent convert.
According to the terror group’s news agency, Amaq, the attack was carried out by a “soldier” of the caliphate “in response to calls to target coalition countries.” In a later statement, Isil said he had an Arabic name and “asks God to accept him”.
Isil often claims attacks by individuals inspired by its message but with no known links to the group. “Despite popular opinion, they do not claim everything,” said Shiraz Maher, a lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. “When [Isil] does claim something, there’s usually some degree of actual connection.”
The attack would not be the first directed against a concert. Isil gunmen stormed the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in a coordinated attack on the city in Nov 2015 in which 130 people died.