LAS VEGAS — A gunman on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas rained heavy fire down on a crowd of over 22,000 at an outdoor country music festival on Sunday night. At least 58 people died.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. At least 515 people were injured.
The FBI discounted the possibility of international terrorism, even after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. But beyond that, the motive remained a mystery.
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THE INVESTIGATION
Country music star Jason Aldean was performing at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when the gunman, identified by police as Stephen Craig Paddock, a 64-year-old retiree from Mesquite, Nevada, apparently used a hammer-like device to smash out windows in his room and opened fire, authorities said.
The crowd, funneled tightly into a wide-open space, had little cover and no easy way to escape. Some victims fell to the ground, while others fled in panic. Some hid behind concession stands. Others crawled under parked cars.
After the first burst of gunfire, the music stopped, Aldean left the stage, and many of those in the crowd looked on in confusion. Then the shooting resumed about half a minute later.
Paddock appeared to fire unhindered for more than 10 minutes as Las Vegas police tried to locate the shooter in one of the Mandalay Bay hotel towers, according to radio traffic. For several minutes, officers could not tell whether the fire was coming from Mandalay Bay or the neighboring Luxor hotel.
Investigators gave few details on the weapons used but reported over the radio that they were faced with fully automatic fire. Paddock had 23 guns in his room, some of them rifles.
In its claim of responsibility, the Islamic State group said Paddock was "a soldier" who had converted to Islam months ago. But it provided no evidence.
FBI agent Aaron Rouse said investigators had seen nothing so far to connect the attack to any international terror organization.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said authorities believe the Las Vegas bloodbath was a "lone wolf" attack but want to talk to Paddock's roommate, a woman Lombardo said was out of the country at the time of the attack. Police located her and determined she wasn't involved in the mass shooting.
Lombardo says investigators will speak with her upon her return.
He said a check of federal and state databases showed Paddock was not on law enforcement authorities' radar.
Nearly every inch of the Las Vegas Strip is under video surveillance, much of it set up by the casinos to monitor their properties. That could yield a wealth of material for investigators.
THE VICTIMS
Concertgoers screamed and ran for their lives outside the hotel-casino after hearing what at first sounded like firecrackers but turned out to be dozens of bullets in rapid-fire bursts, perhaps from an automatic weapon.
"It was the craziest stuff I've ever seen in my entire life," said Kodiak Yazzie, 36. "You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay. You could see a flash, flash, flash, flash."
Monique Dumas, of British Columbia, Canada, said she was six rows from the stage when she heard what she thought was a bottle breaking, then a popping that sounded to her like fireworks.
Couples held hands as they ran through the dirt lot. Faces were etched with shock and confusion, and people wept and screamed. Some were bloodied, and some were carried out by fellow concertgoers. Dozens of ambulances took away the wounded, while some people loaded victims into their cars and drove them to the hospital.
Some of the injured were hit by shrapnel. Others were trampled in the mass panic.
The dead included at least three off-duty police officers from various departments who were attending the concert, authorities said. Two on-duty officers were wounded, one critically, police said.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas hockey team says its assistant coach was shot in the chest. The Rebels men's ice hockey team said in a statement Monday that Nick Robone had surgery to remove a bullet from his chest.
The wife of a Tennessee man killed by Paddock says her husband died because he saved her from being shot.
Heather Gulish Melton told WZTV that her husband, Sonny Melton of Paris, Tennessee, “saved my life and lost his."
Commercial fisherman Adrian Murfitt, 35, of Anchorage, Alaska, was also among the slain, a family member said Monday.
His sister, Shannon Gothard, said the family heard from one of Murfitt's friends who was with him when he died though they haven't received official confirmation about his death.
Real estate agent and father of three older children Rob McIntosh, 52, of North Pole, Alaska, was near the front of the stage with friends when the shooting began, according to friend and real estate broker Mike Vansickle. He was hit repeatedly but survived, Vansickle said.
Lisa Romero, a high school secretary from Gallup, New Mexico, was also killed, the Gallup-McKinley County Schools announced Monday.
She was an "incredible loving and sincere friend, mentor and advocate for students," Mike Hyatt, interim superintendent for Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools, wrote to employees.
Sandy Casey, a middle school special education teacher from Manhattan Beach, California, was killed as well, the school district said.
"This is unbelievably tragic and sad," Mike Matthews, superintendent of the Manhattan Beach School District, wrote in a Monday morning letter to the district. "This loss is impacting many of our staff members deeply."
Kristin Babik, a law student at the University of Florida in Las Vegas for an internship at the Clark County district attorney's office, suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung in the shooting, the school said.
"Kristin is on bed rest for now," an email from the law school's dean said. "We look forward to welcoming her back to Gainesville as soon as she recovers."
Police have warned that identifying bodies from the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history will be a long, laborious process.
THE GUNMAN
SWAT teams using explosives stormed Paddock’s hotel room in the gold-colored glass skyscraper and found he had killed himself.
Paddock lived in a retirement community in a city of about 18,000 people along the state line with Arizona, owned rental properties, held a private pilot's license and liked to travel to Las Vegas to play high-stakes video poker.
As for why he went on the murderous rampage, his brother in Florida, Eric Paddock, told reporters: "I can't even make something up. There's just nothing."
While Stephen Paddock appeared to have no criminal history, his father was a notorious bank robber who tried to run down an FBI agent with his car in Las Vegas in 1960 and was on the agency's most wanted list after escaping from a federal prison in Texas in 1968.
Stephen Paddock was a teen when an FBI poster issued after the escape said his father Benjamin Hoskins Paddock had been "diagnosed as psychopathic."
The FBI warning about the elder Paddock said he should be considered "armed and very dangerous." He had been serving a 20-year sentence for a string of Phoenix bank robberies.
Benjamin Hoskins Paddock died in 1998.
Eric Paddock said his brother was a big spender at casinos and often received free rooms and meals from the casinos. He said his multimillionaire brother never showed signs that he could be violent and owned several guns but never collected firearms.
He described Stephen’s wealth as substantial, said it included real estate and that he managed property for relatives. He was also an accountant for many years.
Eric Paddock also described his brother as different than other people: "He was a guy who had money. He went on cruises and gambled." He was not aware of his brother having any recent financial difficulties.
He says Stephen Paddock did not care about religion or politics, and collected coins when he was a child.
The owner of a Utah gun store says Stephen Paddock visited the store several times this year and bought a shotgun after passing a federal gun background check.
Dixie GunWorx owner Chris Michel says Paddock said that he was new to the area and was visiting local gun shops.
Paddock bought the shotgun in February and last visited the store in St. George, Utah, in the spring. It's a 40-minute drive from where Paddock lived.
Michel says he chatted with Paddock to get to know him and make sure there were no signs that he should not be allowed to buy a gun.
Michel says: "There were no red flags.
"I had no idea he would be capable of this."
THE PRESIDENT
In an address to the country, President Donald Trump called Paddock’s attack "an act of pure evil" and added: "In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has." He ordered flags flown at half-staff.
A bell tolled three times as a solemn Trump paused on the White House South Lawn for a moment of silence to honor the victims.
Flanked by first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, Trump walked out onto the lawn for the memorial moment Monday afternoon.
THE PERFOMERS
Hours after the shooting, Aldean posted on Instagram that he and his crew were safe and that the shooting was "beyond horrific."
"It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night," the country star said.
Country singer Tyler Reeve says he was backstage when a volley of shots rang out. He and other singers took cover in a trailer while bullets struck tour buses, equipment cases and the stage.
"I don't think many people realized right away what it was, but right when I heard it, I grabbed my buddy that was next to me and started running toward a production trailer," Reeve told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday from Las Vegas.
Reeve and others lay down on the trailer floor and turned all the lights off.
"As we were lying in this trailer, I was thinking, 'This can't really be happening,' and it just went on and on. I can't even describe the feeling, just absolute terror," Reeve said.
Dylan Schneider, another singer who also performed Sunday, says he was watching Aldean's performance near the front of the stage when he heard what he initially thought were fireworks. But as the shooting continued he and his manager started ran for cover under nearby bleachers.
"On top of the bleachers all you heard was banging," Schneider said in a phone interview Monday from Las Vegas. "People running around and everybody screaming."
He said the crowd scattered in all directions, unsure of where the gunfire was coming from.
"No one knew what to do," he said. "It was literally running for your life and you don't know what decision is the right one."
Josh Abbott, the lead singer of the Josh Abbott Band, had also performed that day and went back his hotel room in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, a few floors below where police found the attacker dead.
"I had just left and was in the Mandalay Bay on the 20th floor with my fiancée during the shooting just a few floors away," Abbott said in a statement. "The band & crew were on the concert grounds and saw people get shot. Some of my crew members were hit with shrapnel, but not injured. We are deeply disturbed by this horrific act of violence and send our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. It was a long awful night but we are blessed to be alive and healthy. Hug your loved ones tight."
TIMELINE (all posted times are PT)
10:08 p.m.: Reports of shots fired at the Route 91 Harvest Festival outside the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip
10:38 p.m.: The official Twitter account for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department tweets that they're investigating reports of an active shooter near or around the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
11:00 p.m.: LVMPD shuts down part of Las Vegas Blvd.
11:05 p.m.: Multiple victims are taken to area hospitals.
11:32 p.m.: Flights in and out of McCarran Airport are impacted due to "a police incident."
11:55 p.m.: Hospital officials announce two people are dead and dozens are injured after shooting at music festival.
11:58 p.m.: LVMPD tweets that one suspect is down. They continue to urge the public to avoid the Strip.
12:31 a.m.: LVMPD says they believe there are no more shooters.
1:55 a.m.: Sheriff Joseph Lombardo announces that at least 20 people were killed and 100 injured in the shooting. He also says the shooter "was local."
1:57 a.m.: Lombardo says they're looking for two different vehicles associated with the shooting.
2:22 a.m.: LVMPD says Marilou Danley is being sought for questioning in relation to the shooting. It was later determined that Danley was not connected and was out of the country at the time.
2:35 a.m.: The official Mandalay Bay Resort Twitter account tweets a message about the shooting.
3:38 a.m.: The death toll rises to at least 50 people killed and more than 200 injured.
4:30 a.m.: LVMPD announces that two on-duty officers were injured in the shooting.
5:33 a.m.: LVMPD identifies suspect in shooting as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock.
5:55 a.m.: The FBI asks for anyone with video or photos of the shooting to contact them.
8:44 a.m.: Sheriff Lombardo says the death toll has risen to 58, with 515 people injured.
8:50 a.m.: The FBI says the shooting has no connection to international terrorism.
11:38 a.m.: Police warn that identifying bodies will be a "long, laborious process."
2:58 p.m.: Clark County issues a state of emergency.
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