‘Beyond horrific’: Shooting on Las Vegas Strip kills at least 50, wounds hundreds: A Nevada sheriff says the death toll has climbed to at least 50 in the attack on a Las Vegas concert Sunday, making it the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo says more than 200 people were wounded at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in an outdoor area known as Las Vegas Village, across the strip from the Mandalay Bay and the Luxor hotels.
Authorities have identified the person believed to be the gunman in Sunday night’s shooting as Stephen Paddock, 64.
Lombardo says officers confronted Paddock on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across the street from the concert.
It’s believed he checked in as a hotel guest. He’s now dead but how he died is not immediately clear.
‘It was chaos’
Cam (Buzz) Brainard, a country radio host who witnessed the mayhem, told CBC News Network that the shooting sparked chaos and panic as people tried to flee the crowded festival grounds.
Brainard, who initially dove under a tour bus to avoid gunfire, said he just “ran and ran” to the sound of sporadic gunfire, surrounded by a massive crowd of moving people.
“It was chaos.”
Las Vegas police said 406 people were taken to local hospitals after the shooting.
At this time there is in excess of 50 deceased and over 200 injured individuals.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
We have located the vehicles in question, and we are confident we have located the female person of interest.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
Authorities say they have also located 62-year-old Marilou Danley, who was wanted as a person of interest. Police said Monday they don’t believe Danley was involved in the shooting.
The death toll surpassed the 49 from the Orlando nightclub shooting that also left dozens wounded in June 2016, when the 29-year-old gunman was shot and killed by police.
Las Vegas’s casinos, nightclubs and shopping venues draw some 3.5 million visitors from around the world each year. The area was packed with visitors when the shooting broke out shortly after 10 p.m. local time.
Concertgoers reported hearing what they described as automatic gunfire.
Lombardo earlier said it was believed the attack was by a “lone wolf,” but said they were looking for a roommate of the gunman.
U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Monday he was offering his “warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!”
Hours after the shooting, country singer Jason Aldean, one of the performers, posted on Instagram that he and his crew were safe, and said the shooting was “beyond horrific.”
Sprint to safety
Brainard said he was in the artist area just off the stage when the shooting started.
“It was probably the closest point to Mandalay Bay of the entire festival grounds,” he said. He, too, thought the sounds were fireworks, or possibly a blown power line.
He said people wandered out of the tent, and it became clear what was going on as the panic hit.
“In that area, right next to the stage, we dove underneath the tour buses for the artists,” he said. “So we’re on the ground, and that’s when some of the dirt started kicking up around us because bullets were being fired there.”
Brainard, who was with his 19-year-old son, said he and the people around him had to cross over the stage to get away from the Mandalay Bay.
People run after gunfire sparks panic at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas,. The local sheriff says at least 50 people were killed and a couple hundred were wounded. (David Becker/Getty Images)
“We joined the masses of concertgoers, 30,000 people, so now you’re starting to see people that are wounded and you’re also seeing people getting trampled.”
Brainard said he eventually found safety at the Tropicana Hotel, which was locked down.
Thousands flee
Kodiak Yazzie, 36, said he and his girlfriend were watching Aldean’s performance when he heard what sounded like fireworks. The music stopped temporarily and started up again before another round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.
Thousands fled as bursts of gunfire could be heard for more than five minutes, Yazzie said.
— KingLurch (@austinnolson) October 2, 2017
Quinn Mell-Cobb and his girlfriend, Madison Milford, had travelled from Vancouver to Las Vegas for the concert. Mell-Cobb told CBC News Network’s Heather Hiscox on Monday morning that he and his girlfriend were near the back of the festival when they started hearing “pops” in quick succession. Mell-Cobb said he thought it could have been fireworks or bottle rockets.
“Then five, six seconds later, heard it again,” he said. The performer ran off the stage, the lights came up and “we just saw this rush of people” running toward them.
Mell-Cobb said that in the panic, his girlfriend fell to the ground, and he feared she may have been hit by gunfire. Milford said she fell to the ground in shock, but got up and started running after a nearby man told them there were gunshots and they needed to get out of the area.
Mell-Cobb said they couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from, and just got out as quickly as they could.
“It was honestly like a stampede. It was just crazy how many people were running in that direction,” he said.
Jose Baggett, 31, a Las Vegas resident, said he and a friend were in the lobby of the Luxor hotel-casino — directly north of the festival — when people began running. He said people were crying and as he and his friend walked away, they encountered police checkpoints where officers were carrying shotguns and assault rifles.
“There were armoured personnel vehicles, SWAT vehicles, ambulances, and at least a half-mile of police cars,” Baggett said.
Huddled in basement,
Witnesses said they saw multiple victims and dozens of ambulances near the concert venue. Some attendees later huddled in the basement of the nearby Tropicana hotel-casino.
Officers carrying assault rifles ran into the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
Authorities shut down part of the Las Vegas Strip and Interstate 15. Flights were temporarily halted at McCarran International Airport because of the shooting, the airport said on its verified Twitter account.