WHAT'S HAPPENING: Vegas gunman had cameras to detect police

 

October 4, 2017



LAS VEGAS (AP) — The retired accountant who opened fire on country music concertgoers in Las Vegas placed a camera in a food service cart outside his hotel room and also set up cameras inside his room.

Authorities believe Stephen Paddock put them in place so he could see if anyone was coming to try to take him into custody, said Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

The rampage by Paddock killed at least 59 people and injured 527, some from gunfire and some from a chaotic escape.

More about the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history:

THE INVESTIGATION

Investigators were analyzing Paddock's computer and cellphone, examining surveillance footage from the Mandalay Bay casino-resort where he set up a 32nd story sniper's perch and want to interview his girlfriend. She is considered "a person of interest" and has been speaking with police from the Philippines, where she is traveling.


Searches of Paddock's room, his home in Mesquite, Nevada and another house he owned in Reno, Nevada, turned up 49 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Also found were two "bump stocks" , devices added to semi-automatic guns that mimic the rapid fire of fully automatic weapons.

FBI teams were poring over the scene of the shooting, walking among upturned lawn chairs and crushed plastic cups littering an abandoned field and stage at the edge of the iconic Las Vegas Strip.

THE VICTIMS

Those killed included school teachers, real estate agents and local business owners. And the nightmare isn't over for the dozens of people who remain in critical condition, even as Las Vegas slowly begins to recover from the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.


Hospital officials said Tuesday that at least 45 people, including two children, remain in critical condition after being wounded at a country music festival Sunday night.

Here's a look at the shooting by the numbers:

— People at the Route 91 Harvest Festival: 22,000

— Dead: 59

— Died at hospitals: 19

— Injured: 527

— Still hospitalized (as of Tuesday morning): 138

— In critical condition (as of Tuesday morning): 50

— Treated and released (as of Tuesday morning): 239

THE GUNMAN

Paddock, 64, killed himself in his hotel room before authorities arrived. Law enforcement and family members have not been able to explain what motivated the multimillionaire who made much of his money from real estate deals to inflict so much carnage.


On the surface, Paddock didn't seem like a typical mass murderer, said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI hostage negotiator and supervisor in the bureau's behavioral science unit. Paddock is much older than the typical shooter and was not known to be suffering from mental illness.

Public records offered no hint of financial distress or criminal history, though multiple people who knew him said he was a big gambler.

"No affiliation, no religion, no politics. He never cared about any of that stuff," said his brother, Eric Paddock. "He was a guy who had money. He went on cruises and gambled."

HEROIC ACTIONS

Concertgoer Anna Kupchyan credits a man she knows only as Zach for saving her life and about nine others when he herded them into an outdoor trailer serving as a restroom.


Kupchyan, a 27-year-old law student from Los Angeles, said bullets were raining down on the crowd as she and a horde of others began running in search of a way out of the outdoor venue.

The man, Zach, opened a door and ordered people inside and then joined them and shut the door, Kupchyan said.

PRESIDENT SPEAKS OUT

President Donald Trump called Paddock a "very, very sick individual."

Trump spoke to reporters Tuesday as he departed for a trip to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. He called the gunman "demented" and said "we're looking into him very seriously."

Trump praised Las Vegas police, saying they had done an "incredible job."

Asked about gun laws, the president said "we'll be talking about gun laws as time goes by."

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This version corrects that Paddock's home was in Nevada, not Arizona.

 

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