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Las Vegas Mass Shooting at Country Music Festival Leaves More than 50 People Dead

By on October 2, 2017

In the late hours of Sunday night (Oct. 1) leading into the early morning Monday, a lone gunman opened fire on concertgoers attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas. The shooter, who has been identified by police as Stephen Paddock, 64, used his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel as a vantage point to shoot into the festival’s crowd of over 20,000 people on the ground across the street.

Although initial reports said that more than 20 people were pronounced dead and over 100 people were injured, the death toll and number of those who were injured rose significantly by 3:45 am local time. “At this time there is an excess of 50 deceased and over 200 injured individuals,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department tweeted at the time.

With a death toll of 58 people, including the shooter, and more than 515 people being recorded as injured, the Las Vegas incident is confirmed to be the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Shots started being fired shortly after 10 pm Sunday. At around 1:30 am, police said the gunman was dead.

The police believe that Paddock turned a gun onto himself before police entered is room at the Mandalay Bay hotel. In the suspect’s room, they found about 10 long-range fully-automatic rifles and the police estimated that the weapons had a range of at least 1700 feet. Paddock stopped several times while unloading rounds into the crowd to reload his weapons.

Footage of the terrifying event made its round on social media as attendees of the concert shared videos of people on the ground and/or running for their lives. The haunting sound of gunfire can be heard throughout.

Among those who lost their lives last night at the hands of domestic terrorism are two off duty police officers were reported dead, while two on-duty officers were injured.

Monday morning (Oct. 2), a lot of celebrities took to Twitter to issue their condolences and relay warm thoughts during this trying time for those affected by the Las Vegas shooting.

Photo Credit: John Locher/Associated Press

Sheriden Chanel is a twenty-something writer, Beyoncé enthusiast, and lover of all things visual art. Keep up with her and her musings on social via @indiebyline.
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