By Anna Cui (EBC Las Vegas Bureau)
Eagle News Service
LAS VEGAS, United States (Eagle News) — The Las Vegas Metropolitan Department sheriff said that the shooting in a Las Vegas open concert on Sunday that killed 50 people and wounded more than 400 others, was not a terrorist act, but was a single act of shooting by one man in what is now the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department said the shooting was not a terrorist act, nor did it involve multiple shooters.
Authorities now feel that there is no more threat at this time, after the alleged shooter, a a 64-year-old local resident, Stephen Paddock, had been killed by a SWAT team who responded to reports of multiple gunfire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, a hotel-casino next to the concert venue.
According to Lombardo, multiple gunshots were first heard from Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas aiming at the people at a Route91 Country Music concert around 10:00 pm local time.
Revelers screamed and fled in panic as a steady stream of automatic gunfire rang out at the venue shortly after 10:00 pm local time (0500 GMT Monday), footage captured on smart phones showed.
“We are looking at in excess of 50 individuals dead and of 200 individuals injured at this point,” Las Vegas Metro Police Sheriff Lombardo told a pre-dawn press conference on Monday in the Nevada gambling hub.
“Obviously this is a tragic incident and one that we have never experienced.”
Lombardo said that police and FBI were still looking into Paddock’s background but they had “located numerous firearms within the room that he occupied” in the hotel.
He said that the motive of the attack is unknown at this time and the type of weapon used cannot be released.
He said that this was a single act of shooting by one man who is now dead and the authorities feel there is no more threat at this time.
“This is an ongoing investigation and (we) will provide more updates as more information become available,” he said.
Lombardo said one of the police officers at the scene was in critical condition and two off duty officers who were attending the concert are believed to also have been killed by the barrage of shooting.
He confirmed that there were no shootings at the other hotels on the strip but only at Mandalay Bay.
(with a report from Agence France Presse)
