Culture

At Least 58 Have Been Killed In A Mass Shooting At A Music Festival On The Las Vegas Strip


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Updates are available at the bottom of this story.

A gunman opened fire on attendees of a country music festival outside the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas late Sunday night. At least 58 have been confirmed dead and over 515 have been injured, according to multiple reports. The Washington Post reports that lone male gunman was responsible for the carnage — later identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock — has been “confronted” and killed. The Post also noted that local police were “searching for a woman named Marilou Danley who was said to be the gunman’s ‘traveling companion.'” The authorities have since located her.

Accounts of the attack that have emerged so far paint a gruesome and terrifying picture. According to the Las Vegas Journal Review, the shooter was “firing down at concertgoers from upper-level rooms at Mandalay Bay.”

The attack came during the last performances on the final night of the three-day Route 91 country music festival, which has been held for the past four years on a 15-acre lot on Las Vegas Boulevard across from Mandalay Bay … Concertgoer Ivetta Saldana said Jason Aldean stopped in the middle of his performance and was rushed off the stage. She was there with a friend and said the shots sounded like fireworks. She said she hid in a sewer.

“It was a horror show,” she said standing in Town Square shopping center south of the Strip. “People were standing around, then they hit the floor.”

Matt and Robyn Webb from Orange County were watching the final performance of the night at Route 91 when the shooting started and people began to run for the exits. They said they sheltered underneath their seats as burst after burst of gunfire rained down from the direction of Mandalay Bay.

“It just kept coming,” Robyn Webb said. “It was relentless.”

Multiple reports have noted that the Mandalay Bay hotel was put on complete lockdown, and flights in and out of the nearby McCarren airport were suspended out of fear that a plane might be hit by the gunman’s bullets.


Video footage captured by country fest goer Drew Akioshi embedded below provides a window into the moment the shooting started and gives a glimpse of the horror and chaos concert-goers experienced on Sunday night. From the sound of the gunfire, it appears as though the gunman used some sort of military grade, rapid-fire automatic weapon. Warning: the video is quite disturbing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjfmROJb5tE&feature=youtu.be&a=

UPDATE #1: NBC News was first to report at least 50 people have now died and over 200 have been injured. The suspect, who was shot and killed by police, has been identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock from Mesquite, Nevada, who had been living with Marilou Danley]. According to CBS News, authorities located Danley, who they believe was with Paddock before the shooting occurred, shortly after they began searching for her.

UPDATE #2: Moments after White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed with NBC News that Trump had been briefed on the events in Las Vegas, the president issued his first response to the shooting on Twitter. “My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting,” he wrote. “God bless you!”

UPDATE #3: In an early morning press conference, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters Paddock was firing down on the concert attendees from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel. This is also where police ultimately confronted and killed the suspect.


UPDATE #4: CNN is now reporting the Las Vegas incident is, by all accounts, “the deadliest in modern U.S. history.” Although this statement has not yet been confirmed, officially, numbers generated by the Spectator Index suggest CNN’s determination is accurate.

https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/914815157435457537

UPDATE #5: Las Vegas Police Undersheriff Kevin McMahill confirmed with CNN that at least a dozen guns and “a number of long rifles” were recovered from the suspect’s hotel room at the Mandalay Bay. Sheriff Lombardo and other law enforcement officials previously avoided providing a number of potential weapons when asked by reporters.

UPDATE #6: According to a new statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, an estimated 406 people were injured during Sunday night’s mass shooting. In addition, the LVMPD also revealed officers “found the suspect dead” when they breached his hotel room in the Mandalay Bay shortly thereafter. Sheriff Lombardo told reporters in a subsequent press conference they believe the suspect killed himself prior to their entry.

https://twitter.com/TomNamako/status/914837019725062144

UPDATE #7: As the sun began to rise in Las Vegas, Fox News revealed a first look at the two windows allegedly blown out by the shooter on the 32nd story of the Mandalay Bay. It isn’t clear if only one or both of the windows, which were covered by blue tarps flapping in the wind, were used by the suspect during Sunday night’s mass shooting.


UPDATE #8: Roi Kais, a correspondent with Israel’s English-language news service Ynet, reported ISIS is claiming responsibility for the Las Vegas shooting. The Islamic State also purportedly released a video depicting the city as a possible target last May. Considering what the authorities have said publicly about the suspect, however, there’s little evidence to suggest the claim is valid.

UPDATE #9: FBI Special Agent Aaron Rouse briefly commented on the claim made earlier by the Islamic State during a press conference. “As this the event unfolds, we have determined to this point no connection with an international terrorist group,” he said. “As this investigation continues, we will continue to work with our partners to ensure this is factually, thoroughly and absolutely investigated to be able to bring comfort and peace back to this community.”