Terror in Las Vegas

On October 1st, at 10:05 a gunman Began shooting into a crowd of about 22,000 people attending the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas, Nevada which spread across a 15 acre concrete lot. This has been recorded to be the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The shooter killed 58 people and wounded about 527 on the grounds below.

The shooter was identified as Stephen Paddock who was 64 years old, from Mesquite, Nevada. Stephen Paddock, “lived in Mesquite with his 62-year-old girlfriend, Marilou Darnley, who was overseas when the shooting unfolded” (CBS News). Stephen had always had a knack for gambling, and his brother, Eric, said that Stephen was a multimillionaire and, “had recently won a $40,000 jackpot” (ABC News). With the exception of a minor citation, Paddock, “had no criminal history” (ABC News). A spokeswoman from the Office of Personnel Management gave ABC News a look into Paddock’s past. They confirmed that he had been employed by the federal government in the years 1975-1985, first serving as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, and the following up with being an agent for the Internal Revenue Service. Finally, he worked as an auditor for the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

His history offers very few hints to violence, however Eric Paddock, Stephens brother, told ABC News that, “their estranged father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, was a notorious bank robber who spent several years on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list” (ABC News). Although his father may have been diagnosed as psychopathic, there is no evidence leading to the consensus that Stephen, had also been a psychopath. When his brother Eric initially discovered Stephen’s actions, he had said that, “he is ‘horrified’ and ‘dumbfounded” (CBS News).

When describing the story from the very beginning, USA Today stated, “Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, checks into room 135 on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, bringing ‘in excess of 10 suitcases’ to the two-room suite” (USA Today). Before he began firing, Paddock shattered two windows from connecting rooms with what is believed to be, “something like a hammer” (NBC News). The shooting began while country performer, Jason Aldean, was on stage. Witnesses described it as, “a chaotic scene of back-to-back bullets raining down from above, lasting for up to 10 minutes” (NBC News). Jake Owen, another country artist and a fellow performer of Jason Aldean stated he had been approximately 50 feet from Aldean when the shots started; “It got faster and faster, almost like it was an automatic rifle. At that point, everyone on stage started running everywhere” (NBC News).

A former Sheriff of Clark County, Bill Young, had a 22-year-old daughter that had attended the festival; “his daughter said that the weapon ‘sounded like a machine gun’” (NBC News). Within 12 minutes of the onset of the shooting, a security guard arrived on the floor, and soon after that a small group of police arrived. “They organized themselves so into an ad-how SWAT team and began storming room 135” (CBS News). They blew the door open and they describe what they first saw as an armory; “--so many guns. So many magazines. Stacks and stacks of magazines everywhere. Just in suitcases all neatly stacked against pillars, around the room, all stacked up, rifles placed all throughout. All kinds of monitors and electrical equipment he had in there. It just looked like almost a gun store.” (CBS News). Also stated when describing the scene inside the room, “Shell casings all over the floor. I could smell the gunpowder that had went off in the room. We were trippin' over guns. Trippin' over long guns inside. There was so many.” (CBS News). Police said Stephen Paddock was found dead in an “apparent suicide” (CNBC).

“It was well planned out, and took a lot of strategic thinking” Former FBI Profiler Mary-Ellen Outuils (CBS News). She also stated that he had likely been planning this attack for years. Although ISIS claimed that they were behind the shooting, the FBI have dismissed any notion that the gunman, “had links with international terrorism” (CBS News). ISIS’s claims lacked credibility, providing no evidence that this statement was indeed, true. The gunman’s motives are still questioned. Heather Melton, who was at the festival with her husband who was shot in the back and died, stated that, “"I don’t care what his motive was because in my mind there's no justifiable motive, reason, belief that could account for what he did... I don’t ever want to hear his name I don't want to see his face” (CNN).

During an investigation that took place after the shooting was over, investigators, “found 23 firearms in Paddock’s room at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and 19 more at his home” (NBC News). These firearms consisted of a mix of both rifles and handguns. Stated by Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, “Hotel employees had been in his room before the shooting and didn’t notice anything unusual” (NBC News). President Donald Trump called the shooting, “an act of pure evil” (NBC News). At a news conference, President Donald Trump also stated that, “We cannot fathom their pain. We cannot imagine their loss. To the families of the victims, we are praying for you, and we are here for you." (NBC News). No one should ever have to experience anything like what the crowd in Las Vegas had to go through, and they are in our prayers.