A gunman opened fire at Las Vegas’ Route 91 Harvest Festival last night, killing 59 people and injuring approximately 515 people, according to reports from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Automatic gunfire broke out at around 10pm last night during country singer Jason Aldean’s set at the festival, which was held at the Las Vegas Village and Festival Grounds on the Las Vegas strip. The shooting took place in a crowd of roughly 22,000 people and has been named the deadliest in American history.
The suspected shooter was shot and killed after SWAT teams descended on the concert grounds after the gunfire broke out just after 10pm. In a press conference early this morning, Las Vegas Metro Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo confirmed that the suspect in the shooting was 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock, a white male. After the shooting, police also searched the nearby Ali Baba Restaurant and New York-New York Hotel and Casino, including the suspect’s hotel room.
The LVMPD also initially reported that they were “confident” they had tracked down and detained “a companion” of Paddock’s, Marilou Danley, as a person of interest. But LVMPD sheriff Joseph Lombardo confirmed in a press conference later in the morning that Marilou Danley was out of the country during the time of the shooting, and that Paddock “used her identification in some way.”
Harrowing video of mass shooting during @Jason_Aldean set of #Route91Harvest Festival in #LasVegas. #MandalayBay pic.twitter.com/gaXgDBbZKV
— Evan Schreiber (@SchreiberEvan) October 2, 2017
You can hear the shots at #route91harvest music festival near #MandalayBay in #LasVegas. Vid per Drew Akioshi. (Posted by @davidsakach) pic.twitter.com/1jkmFkwMbT
— Chris Stewart (@CStewartWPTV) October 2, 2017
PRESS RELEASE: LVMPD Identifies Suspect in Sunday Night Shooting on the Strip https://t.co/dR6m0812Vu #LVMPDnews
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) October 2, 2017
