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The owner of a Utah gun store says the Las Vegas shooter visited the store several times this year and bought a shotgun after passing a federal gun background check.
Dixie GunWorx owner Chris Michel says Stephen Craig 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 in Mesquite, Nevada.
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.”
He added: “I had no idea he would be capable of this.”
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Officials are still loading bodies into vans to remove them from the scene of the Las Vegas shooting that killed at least 58 people.
The work continued more than 12 hours after a gunman opened fire from the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of thousands of people at a country music concert.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo has said the hundreds of people who were wounded were taken to five southern Nevada hospitals.
Police have warned that identifying bodies from the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history will be a long, laborious process.
Las Vegas shooter’s father was on FBI’s most wanted list in 1968, USA today publishes.
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A gunman holed up in a hotel room high above the Las Vegas Strip fired down upon thousands of people attending a music festival Sunday night, in a brutal attack blamed for at least 58 deaths, police say. In the mass shooting and panic that ensued, some 515 people were injured.
At least one of the dead is an off-duty police officer who was attending the concert. The suspect is also dead. Police say they’re still trying to learn what could have motivated such an attack.
Responding to reports by the ISIS-associated news agency Amaq that the terrorist group had claimed responsibility for the attack — and that Paddock had converted to Islam — FBI Las Vegas Special Agent in Charge Aaron Rouse said on Monday that the agency has “determined, to this point, no connection with an international terrorist group.”
Paddock fired down at the crowd of more than 22,000 people from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, according to the Las Vegas police department. A SWAT team used an explosive to breach the room, Lombardo said, and when police entered, they “found the suspect dead.” Police say they believe Paddock killed himself.
The sound of gunfire at the Route 91 Harvest festival concert was reported around 10:08 p.m. local time Sunday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said at a news briefing. He identified the shooter as Stephen Paddock — a 64-year-old white male who is a resident of Nevada — and said the suspect was acting as a “lone wolf.”
The suspect in the case is also dead. Police say they’re still trying to learn what could have motivated such an attack.
“The Clark County Fire Department estimated that approximately 406 people were transported to area hospitals,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says.
Gunfire at the multi-day Route 91 Harvest concert was reported around 10:08 p.m. Sunday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said at a news briefing. He later added that the shooter, acting as a “lone wolf,” has been identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, a white male who is a resident of Nevada.
https://twitter.com/bridgetkbennett/status/914848008289710080
Local officials asked people to donate blood through United Blood Services — and a massive response followed, with long lines prompting the service to deploy mobile donation vehicles and open more facilities to the public. Others showed up to offer water and snacks to people waiting in line, local Fox 5 News reports.
Police say Paddock fired down at the crowd of more than 22,000 people from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. A SWAT team used an explosive to breach the room, Lombardo said. When police entered the room, they “found the suspect dead,” Las Vegas police say.
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President Donald Trump said he will travel to Las Vegas on Wednesday. He spoke Monday morning, hours after the shooting at a country music festival late Sunday killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 400. It is the worst mass shooting in American history.
Trump said the nation must stay unified. He said that although “feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that binds us today and always will.” He also called the mass shooting attack in Las Vegas “an act of pure evil.”
Trump tweeted his “warmest condolences and sympathies” earlier Monday morning.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/914810093874671617
The gunman opened fire from inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
Authorities say 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock killed himself after the shooting. Police have yet to determine a motive.
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Islamic State claims Las Vegas attack, says shooter converted to Islam months ago, but provides no evidence, according to Associated Press.
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Houston responded to the massacre in Las Vegas. Sylvester Turner tweeted a message of solidarity:
The city of Houston stands with Las Vegas, Nevada with a heavy heart following the horrifying mass shooting there.
— Sylvester Turner (@SylvesterTurner) October 2, 2017
Former Houston resident, DeAnna Harris, was at the Route 91 Harvest festival, at the time of the shooting: “It was super scary. We really didn't know what was going on. It's just something you wouldn't expect”, Harris said to Houston’s TV channel KHOU. “It's always a good time, people bring their kids out, seeing these parents carrying their children running through these parking lots was awful.”
The gunman, Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, moved from place to place, including parts of Texas, California and Nevada, according to public records, the San Antonio Express News published. In Texas, Paddock is registered as living in Mesquite, just outside of Dallas, and working in Houston.
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A gunman who fired upon thousands of people attending a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip has killed more than 50 people, police say. More than 400 others were wounded in the mass shooting and panic that ensued. At least one of the dead is an off-duty police officer who was attending the concert.
The suspect in the case is also dead.
“The Clark County Fire Department estimated that approximately 406 people were transported to area hospitals,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says.
Gunfire at the multi-day Route 91 Harvest concert was reported around 10:08 p.m. Sunday night, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said at a news briefing. He later added that the shooter, acting as a “lone wolf,” has been identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, a resident of Nevada.
Police say Paddock fired down at the crowd of more than 22,000 people from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. A SWAT team used an explosive to breach the room, Lombardo said. When police entered the room, they “found the suspect dead,” Las Vegas police say.
Police say they believe Paddock killed himself. Lombardo said “in excess of 10 rifles” were found in the room; he did not identify the guns other than to call them rifles.
The violence is now being called the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, and the tragic death toll seems likely to rise. Forty-nine victims were killed in the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
https://twitter.com/IAMJUSTINAARON/status/914739085717262337
Images and video from the Las Vegas Strip are harrowing. They show masses of people screaming and trying to seek safety as torrents of gunshots echo through the area of Las Vegas Village, an outdoor venue northwest of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino — where the gunman was positioned on the 32nd floor, police say.
Witnesses said that at first they thought the gunshots were the sounds of fireworks. After the danger became clear, several said, they were still unsure where to run — because they couldn’t see where the bullets were coming from.
Two on-duty police officers were injured during the shooting, the department says, adding, “One is in stable condition after surgery and the other sustained minor injuries.”
“Obviously this is a tragic incident, and one that we’ve never experienced in this valley,” Lombardo said. One goal now, he said, was to “get our first responders back on their feet” and conducting a full investigation.
The sheriff also shared the number of a hotline people can use to check on their loved ones: a missing persons hotline at 866-535-5654.
President Trump said via a tweet, “My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!”
Little is known about the suspected gunman. As Casey Morell of member station KNPR reports about Paddock, “He lived in a town called Mesquite — which is about 90 minutes north of Las Vegas” in Clark County.
Paddock seems not to have had a criminal record. “The only thing we can tell is he received a citation several years ago and that citation was handled as a matter of normal practice in the court system,” Lombardo said.
In the initial hours after the shooting, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said they were looking for Paddock’s female companion, Marilou Danley. Early Monday, the department said, “we are confident we have located the female person of interest” — but they later clarified that they believe she was not involved. Lombardo says she was found “out of the country” and that Paddock had used some of her identification.
Police have also located two vehicles associated with Paddock: a Hyundai Tucson and a Chrysler Pacifica.
A Jason Aldean concert was underway at the time of the shooting. On social media, Aldean said he and his crew are safe.
In an Instagram post he called the shooting “beyond horrific.”
The mass shooting prompted panic and a lockdown at hotels along the Strip, as a barrage of gunfire rained down on the crowd.
Musician Jake Owen, who played on the same stage as Aldean earlier Sunday night, told CBS News that the stream of gunfire seemed to go on for at least six minutes and possibly as many as 10. He took shelter behind a car with a crowd of other people, he said.
The Associated Press describes the scene:
“Concert-goers reported seeing muzzle flashes from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across Las Vegas Boulevard from the country music festival and the sound of what they described as automatic gun fire.
“Witnesses said they saw multiple victims as they fled the gunfire raining down on the concert venue.
“Some later huddled in the basement of the nearby Tropicana hotel-casino.
“Some officers took cover behind their vehicles while others carrying assault rifles ran into the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.”
Tens of thousands of people attended the weekend-long Route 91 Harvest country music festival. Aldean was headlining the final night of the three-day concert; he had been scheduled to go on stage just before 10 p.m.
The FBI is assisting with the investigation, including helping to process evidence from the scene, Lombardo said. He added that the Red Cross is also helping the community.
Flights in an out of nearby McCarran International Airport were temporarily halted, but some flights resumed early Monday.
This is a developing story. Some things that get reported by the media will later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from police officials and other authorities, credible news outlets and reporters who are at the scene. We will update as the situation develops.