A gunman opened fire on an outdoor concert near the Mandalay Bay casino on the Las Vegas Strip and killed at least 50 people. More than 400 people have sustained injuries.
Authorities have identified 64-year-old Stephen Paddock from Mesquite, NV, as the shooter. Reports say that Paddock “unleashed a withering hail of bullets from an automatic weapon from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.” From Fox News:
Authorities first received calls about an active shooting at about 10:08 p.m. Country music star Jason Aldean was performing at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when the gunfire erupted.Aldean was performing his last song of the night. Initially, those in attendance said they thought the sound was firecrackers. But as the shots continued, Aldean stopped singing and some concertgoers could be heard yelling to each other to get down.
Authorities have located his roommate Marilou Danley, 62, who they identified as a person of interest. Detectives “do not believe she is involved with the shooting,”
Clark County Sheriff Jospeh Lombardo explained that the authorities knew about Paddock due to his criminal past. He described him as a lone wolf and does not have any known connections to terrorists. Basically, no one knows Paddock’s motivation as of now.
The authorities also found several weapons in Paddock’s room, which he had been in since September 28, with his dead body. It looks like Paddock killed himself before the police could catch him.
From Fox News:
Kodiak Yazzie, 36, said the music stopped temporarily and started up again before another round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.”It was the craziest stuff I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Yazzie told the Associated Press. “You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay. You could see a flash- flash- flash- flash.”As the 40,000 fans in the crowd began to flee, Yazzie took cover and said he saw flashes of light coming from the Mandalay Bay hotel tower high above.
The New York Post reported:
Matt and Robyn Webb from Orange County said they sheltered under their seats as bullets rained down from the direction of Mandalay Bay.“It just kept coming,” Robyn Webb told the paper. “It was relentless.”They later fled toward Reno Avenue, where they said they saw as many as 20 people bleeding in the street.“That’s when we knew for sure it was real,” Matt Webb said.—Mike McGarry, a 53-year-old financial adviser from Philadelphia, said he was at the concert when he heard hundreds of shots ring out.“It was crazy — I laid on top of the kids. They’re 20. I’m 53. I lived a good life,” said McGarry, whose shirt bore footprints, after people in the panicked crowd ran over him.
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