Mass Shooting Outside Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay; 50+ Dead, 500+ Sent to Hospital

A gunman opened fire on a country music concert outside the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Sunday evening.

Fifty-nine people are confirmed dead and there are 527 reported injured. The shooter, named as Stephen Paddock, was confirmed dead by Joseph Lombardo, the sheriff of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The gunman opened fire on tens of thousands of concertgoers gathered for the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.

Update — 10:25 p.m. PDT: As late-night host Jimmy Kimmel lectures Americans about the “gun lobby,” footage emerges of a performance right before the shooting began. Country music stars Big & Rich performed “God Bless America” during their set at the country music festival, just an hour before gunfire rang across the plaza. The footage shows thousands of fans holding their cell phones aloft — thousands of lights in the night sky — and singing along.

Nearly 600 of those in the crowd would later be wounded, dozens of them fatally so.

Update — 9:45 p.m. PDT: The Associated Press reports that the gunman owned two “bump stocks,” legal devices that can mimic the effect of automatic weapons fire when attached to a semiautomatic rifle. It is not known whether he used them in the shooting.

Update — 7:20 p.m. PDT: The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department announced at an evening briefing that the suspect had been determined to have 23 firearms at the Mandalay Bay, and 19 at his home in Mesquite. The police continued to investigate evidence at the Mesquite home to determine the motive of the killer. He had acted alone, police said. Blood banks had received so many donations that they did not need any more help, they said. The police commissioner said that the department had received $2.2 million from a total of 30,000 donors, after setting an initial target of raising $500,000 as part of a donation drive to support the victims of the shooting.

Update — 5:45 p.m. PDT: On ESPN’s Monday Night Football, the entire Washington Redskins squad stood for the national anthem. Most of the Kansas City Chiefs did as well.

Two members of the Chiefs, linebacker Ukeme Eligwe and cornerback Marcus Peters, sat for the anthem. Peters was promptly burned by the Redskins’ Terrelle Pryor, Sr. for a touchdown inside the first three minutes of the game.

Update — 3:57 p.m. PDT:

Update — 3:44 p.m. PDT: Roommate Marilou Danley is currently in the Philippines, according to Sheriff Lombardo, and is not believed to have any involvement in the shooting. A “girlfriend” to Paddock is currently in Tokyo, he says.

Update — 3:42 p.m. PDT:

Update — 3:29 p.m. PDT: Another LVMPD presser:

Update — 3:06 p.m. PDT: Casualty count updated again.

Update — 3:05 p.m. PDT:

Update — 2:45 p.m. PDT:

Update — 1:39 p.m. PDT: NY Times reports that Paddock had two tripods in front of the room’s windows:

Update — 1:37 p.m. PDT: “All necessary background checks and procedures were followed.”

Update — 1:32 p.m. PDT:

Update — 1:15 p.m. PDT: NBC reports that Paddock was a very high roller in recent days:

On several occasions, Stephen Paddock gambled more than $10,000 per day — and in some cases more than than $20,000 and $30,000 a day — at Las Vegas casinos, according to an NBC News source who read the suspect’s Multiple Currency Transaction Reports (CTR) and a casino gaming executive.

Update — 12:58 p.m. PDT: Crucial detail from Sheriff Lombardo’s press conference earlier this afternoon:

Update — 12:50 p.m. PDT: Oddly enough, it’s the Washington Post that thoroughly destroys Hillary Clinton’s non sequitur about “silencers” and the Vegas shooting:

Clinton and others appear to be assuming that silencers — or “suppressors,” as they’re known in the industry — work the way that they do in the movies. Screw a little barrel on the end of your pistol, and you can run through enemy headquarters picking off bad guys with no more audio footprint than a little zip.

Update — 12:12 p.m. PDT:

Update — 12:09 p.m. PDT:

Update — 12:06 p.m. PDT:

Update — 11:50 a.m. PDT:

Update — 11:36 a.m. PDT: 

Update — 11:25 a.m. PDT:

Update — 11:17 a.m. PDT: White House weighs in on gun control.

Update — 11:16 a.m. PDT: Dueling outlooks from two press conferences:

Update — 11:08 a.m. PDT:

Update — 11:06 a.m. PDT: New reports claim number of guns in Paddock’s room was somewhere between 18 and 20.

Update — 10:56 a.m. PDT:

Update — 10:43 a.m. PDT:

Update — 10:37 a.m. PDT:

Update — 10:36 a.m. PDT:

Update — 10:33 a.m. PDT: 

Update — 10:23 a.m. PDT: An odd and not entirely relevant but interesting tidbit: “Vegas Shooter’s Father Was on FBI Most Wanted List.”

Update — 9:55 a.m. PDT: Breitbart’s Michelle Moons says Trump’s schedule was just updated to include a 2:45 PM moment of silence led by the President and the First Lady. And there will now be an on-camera press briefing at 2 PM with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.

Update — 9:52 a.m. PDT: Entertainment exec exploring whether Trump supporters may have deserved it:

Update — 9:45 a.m. PDT: IDs of victims beginning to trickle out.

Update — 9:35 a.m. PDT: Associated Press reports that a woman “companion” of Paddock’s is a person of interest in the investigation of the attack but she is currently out of the country.

Authorities say a woman who was a companion of the Las Vegas shooter is considered a person of interest and is out of the country.

Sheriff Joe Lombardo didn’t release further details Monday about the woman but said authorities would try to speak with her when she got back to the United States.

Update — 9:22 a.m. PDT:

Update — 9:18 a.m. PDT:

Update — 9:07 a.m. PDT: Sen. Cardin (D-MD) wants bipartisan action on automatic weapons:

Update — 9:04 a.m. PDT: More biographical details on Paddock from the Washington Post:

Diane McKay lived next door to Paddock and Danley until July, when McKay moved to a different community, but said she only ran into Danley occasionally when both women happened to be pulling weeds from the front yard. Danley wasn’t forthcoming about her life, and Paddock was aggressively unfriendly, McKay recalls. She only saw him in the mornings, when he went to the club house to work out. Occasionally, he would open the garage door, revealing a large refrigerator safe. Other than that, the couple kept their blinds closed.

“He was weird. Kept to himself,” said McKay, 79, who described Paddock as small but in pretty good shape. “It was like living next to nothing…You can at least be grumpy, something. He was just nothing, quiet. He never went out in back and enjoyed the backyard, nature. They had a little backyard, 17 feet to the fence and hill. But the blinds were always closed.”

McKay said the couple was gone for six months last year, which she thought was for a gambling trip.

Paddock’s family said there was nothing in his past that would suggest violence. Family members said that Paddock spent much of his retirement in recent years staying in hotels in Las Vegas and gambling. They said he listened to country music and went to concerts at Vegas hotels, similar to the one Sunday night where he opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers.

Public records show the gunman Paddock was a licensed pilot who owned two planes. And he had a hunting license from Alaska.

Update — 8:50 a.m. PDT:

Update — 8:55 a.m. PDT: FBI contradicts claim from Islamic State:

Update — 8:53 a.m. PDT:

Update — 8:41 a.m. PDT: Updated casualty count:

Update — 8:25 a.m. PDT: Tremendous response from the community:

Update — 8:24 a.m. PDT: More details and images from eyewitnesses:

Update — 8:17 a.m. PDT: Joe Biden has some thoughts.

Update — 8:12 a.m. PDT:

Update — 8:08 a.m. PDT: Left has already dropped all pretense of not politicizing the attack.

Update — 8:06 a.m. PDT: Candidate for NV Gov. starts fundraiser for victims:

Update — 8:04 a.m. PDT: 

Update — 7:54 a.m. PDT: President Trump orders flags flown at half-staff. Watch his full speech here.

Update — 7:46 a.m. PDT: Jeff Sessions reacts.

Update — 7:41 a.m. PDT: Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts gets classy:

Update — 7:36 a.m. PDT: Killer’s brother interviewed in Florida:

Update — 7:26 a.m. PDT: Ben Rhodes has some thoughts.

Update — 7:19 a.m. PDT: Hillary Clinton has some thoughts.

Update — 7:14 a.m. PDT: Not likely. But time will tell.

Update — 7:01 a.m. PDT:

Update — 6:37 a.m. PDT: Several blown out windows seen on the Mandalay Bay building:

Update — 6:17 a.m. PDT: Paddock’s brother Eric tells the Daily Mail that Stephen was a “normal guy” who must have “snapped” to be able to carry out this attack:

The brother of the Las Vegas shooter said that he was a normal guy who must have ‘snapped’ before carrying out the worst mass shooting in American history.

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Eric Paddock said that ‘something happened’ to make his brother Stephen kill at least 50 people and injure 200.

Eric said that there was ‘absolutely no indication he could do something like this’ and said that Stephen had no political or religious affiliation.

He said: ‘He was just a guy. Something happened, he snapped or something’.

Speaking from his home in Orlando, Florida, Eric said: ‘We know absolutely nothing, this is just, we are dumbfounded.

Update — 6:14 a.m. PDT:

Update — 6:08 a.m. PDT: Crowd size at the Route 91 festival estimated at 22,000:

Update — 6:03 a.m. PDT:

Update — 6:02 a.m. PDT:

Update — 6:01 a.m. PDT: Audio of the police breaching the suspect’s door:

Update — 5:43 a.m. PDT: Photos from the scene of the attack:

Update — 5:40 a.m. PDT: “The Clark County Fire Department estimated that approximately 406 people were transported to area hospitals and 50 are dead following Sunday evening’s shooting.”

Update — 5:38 a.m. PDT: Conflicting info — Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department states in a press release that officers found Paddock dead in his hotel room when they breached the door.

Update — 5:20 a.m. PDT: First photo released of Paddock:

Update — 5:11 a.m. PDT: According to USA Today, law enforcement found a “cache of weapons” in Paddock’s hotel room. Law enforcement clarified which floor of the hotel he was shooting from and said they have not yet determined a motive for the attack:

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said officers determined the gunshots were coming from a room on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay complex on the Las Vegas Strip. Officers stormed the room and killed the suspect, Lombardo said.

“Right now, we believe it’s a sole actor, a lone-wolf-type actor,” Lombardo said. He said a motive for the shooting had not yet been determined.

Update — 5:06 a.m. PDT: Police have located Paddock’s roommate Marilou Danley and no longer consider her a person of interest.

Update at 5:03 a.m. PDT: White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders issued this statement –

The President has been briefed on the horrific tragedy in Las Vegas. We are monitoring the situation closely and offer our full support to state and local officials. All of those affected are in our thoughts and prayers.

Update at 5:00 a.m. PDT: Ivanka Trump tweeted –

Update at 4:48 a.m. PDT: Vice President Mike Pence tweeted –

Update at 4:18 a.m. PDT: President Donald J. Trump tweeted –

Update at 3:58 a.m. PDT: LVMPD release contact number to help those looking for family and loved ones.

Update at 3:36 a.m. PDT: Main suspect named by LVMPD as Stephen Paddock. Born 4/9/53.  He had no criminal record [UPDATE 5:10 a.m. PDT – NBC reports Paddock was “known to local law enforcement,” presumably in Mesquite, NV]. Police confirm 50-plus reported as dead. Another 200-plus injured. Two vehicles being sought have been found. A female person of interest has also been found. Deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Update at 3:32 a.m. PDT:

Update at 2:48 a.m. PDT: Mandalay Bay Resort, from where the suspect in the deadly Las Vegas attack carried out his shooting spree, has tweeted that its “thoughts and prayers are with the victims of last night’s tragic events.”

The hotel posted a statement from MGM Resorts, explaining that all hotels nearby remain in lockdown.

Update at 2:26 a.am. PDT: The mayor of Las Vegas, Carolyn G. Goodman, tweeted her gratitude to the first responders who were called to the scene at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

Update 1:52 a.m. PDT: Jason Aldean, who was performing onstage as the shooting began, released a statement via Instagram:

Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still dont know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe. My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. #heartbroken #stopthehate

View this post on Instagram

Tonight has been beyond horrific. I still dont know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that Me and my Crew are safe. My Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved tonight. It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night. #heartbroken #stopthehate

A post shared by Jason Aldean (@jasonaldean) on Oct 2, 2017 at 1:17am PDT

Update 1:40 a.m. PDT: Las Vegas Police Department Sheriff Joe Lombardo says that the gunman is local and that the police do not believe it is an act of terror. He also says that police are looking for the gunman’s roommate, an Asian female named Mari Lou Danley — approximately 4’11”. Police also indicated that they are looking for two vehicles, as follows:

Some of the off-duty police officers attending the event were killed, he says.

Update 1:37 a.m. PDT: Las Vegas Police Department Sheriff Joe Lombardo has confirmed “in excess of 100 plus injured, 20 plus dead.”

Update 1:35 a.m. PDT: A police officer from Bakersfield, California, was among the wounded, with non-life-threatening injuries. He was attending the concert with other off-duty officers:

Update 1:15 a.m. PDT: Eyewitness video has emerged of country music star Jason Aldean performing as the gunshots rang out, then running from the stage:

Video has also emerged of volunteers moving the victims to safety from the scene:

Update 1:05 a.m. PDT: The local Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that a police source says that “at least 20” were killed in the shooting.

Update 1:00 a.m. PDT: According to a local reporter on the scene, the downed suspect was on a high floor of the hotel:

Update 12:57 a.m. PDT: Another angle of the shooting has emerged, apparently filmed from across the plaza to the south:

Update 12:35 a.m. PDT: Los Angeles-based ABC News affiliate KABC reports, via an emergency medical technician onsite, that there may have been multiple gunmen on separate floors of the Mandalay Bay hotel firing into the crowd. However, Las Vegas police indicate: “At this time we do not believe there are any more shooters.”

Update 12:22 a.m. PDT: Reuters reports that 14 of those who arrived at area hospitals are “critically wounded”:

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW

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Country music singer Jason Aldean was reportedly wrapping up his music set when the attack occurred. Video footage posted to social media captures the sound of rapid gunfire.

 

(Original source for video above: Vincent Sager via Instagram.)

A witness told CNN that “the shots just kept coming,” and that people hid wherever they could, including under parked cars.

Las Vegas police shut down the entire sector south of Tropicana Boulevard, including the interstate:

Las Vegas police indicate the attack was centered around the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino:

According to the New York Times, “several SWAT teams were sent to [Mandalay Bay].” McCarran International Airport, which is just east of the Mandalay Bay, suspended flights in light of the attack.

The AP reports that “multiple victims have been transported to hospitals,” and University Medical Center spokeswoman Danita Cohen said they have received “‘several’ people with gunshot wounds.” Los Angeles-based KABC reports that “at least 20 victims” have been treated and that one witness said, “There was blood everywhere.”

Just before midnight local time, Las Angeles Police confirmed that one suspect is down:

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.