At around 10:08 p.m. local time Sunday a gunman fired on the crowd of about 22,000 people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel during the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Country music singer Jason Aldean was performing when the gunshots began. “The gunshots lasted for 10 to 15 minutes. It didn’t stop,” said witness Rachel de Kerf. At least 58 dead; more than 500 people taken to area hospitals, authorities said.
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Authorities say they are not calling this terrorism, at this time. “We have to establish what his motivation was first,” said Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, when asked why this event has not been labeled domestic terrorism. So far investigators believe the firearms were purchased legally. The suspicion, based on initial reports, is that any of the rifles used were altered in order to function as an automatic weapon, said the official. Among the weapons found so far: a .223 caliber and a .308 caliber.
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Police served a search warrant on the Mesquite, Nevada, home of Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock, Monday morning. Authorities found weapons and ammunition but could not go into details, according the Mesquite Police Department. An additional property in northern Nevada owned by the shooter will be searched soon, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said in a news conference.
We had no knowledge of this individual,” Lombardo said of Paddock. “I don’t know how it could have been prevented.”
The shooter’s brother, Eric Paddock, told CNN: “He was my brother and it’s like an asteroid fell out of the sky.” He said the last time he spoke to his brother was when Stephen texted asking how their mother was after they lost power for five days in a storm. Eric Paddock said he knew of a couple of handguns and maybe one long rifle but did not know of any automatic weapons owned by Stephen Paddock.
The shooter had been at the Mandalay Bay hotel since September 28, 2017, authorities said. Hotel employees had been in his room prior to the shooting and did not notice anything amiss, according to Lombardo.
In the wake of the shooting, the Las Vegas Police Department said authorities responded to a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, where police said the suspected gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, was dead. Police said they believe Paddock killed himself prior to police entry.
The motive was unclear. “I can’t get into the mind of a psychopath,” Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference this morning. Police do not believe there were any additional shooters.