Las Vegas: 58 dead, more than 500 injured in deadliest shooting in US history
LAS VEGAS: A gunman opened fire Sunday night with a fully automatic rifle from a room window on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada and killed at least 58 people and wounded another 500 in the biggest mass shooting in U.S. history.
The shooter fired downward into a crowd of concert goers at a Jason Aldean country music concert that was occurring in a lot adjacent to the hotel, across Las Vegas Boulevard.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said that 400 people had been wounded and at least 50 have died. The shooter, Stephen Paddock, 64, died of a self-inflicted wound at his hotel, police said. He is a local resident and believed to be lone wolf. No motive is known.
Authorities were looking for a companion of the shooter, Marilou Danley, and authorities later said this morning, “We’re confident — but not 100 percent sure — we have located the female person of interest.”
Local news outlets played videos from concert goers showing persons dropping to the ground after being shot and others running from the area. The sound of the automatic weapon fire is easily heard on the videos that were released.
The gunfire sounded like a .30 caliber fully automatic weapon.
This is the worst shooting incident in Las Vegas history. As a former security director for two hotels in Las Vegas, this was my worst nightmare.
LVMPD released the photo of a person of interest, Maryilou Danley, an Asian female, 4’11”.
Police are also looking for two vehicles, 2017 Hyundai Tucson, Nevada plate 114B40 and a Chrysler Pacifica, Nevada plate 79D401.
Doug authored over 135 articles on the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas Massacre, more than any other single journalist in the country. He investigates stories on corruption, law enforcement, and crime. Doug is a US Army Military Police Veteran, former police officer, deputy sheriff, and criminal investigator. Doug spent 20 years in the hotel/casino industry as an investigator and then as Director of Security and Surveillance. He also spent a short time with the US Dept. of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration. In 1986 Doug was awarded Criminal Investigator of the Year by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia for his undercover work in narcotics enforcement. In 1991 and 1992 Doug testified in court that a sheriff’s office official and the county prosecutor withheld exculpatory evidence during the 1988 trial of a man accused of the attempted murder of his wife. Doug’s testimony led to a judge’s decision to order the release of the man from prison in 1992 and awarded him a new trial, in which he was later acquitted. As a result of Doug breaking the police “blue wall of silence,” he was fired by the county sheriff. His story was featured on Inside Edition, Current Affair and CBS News’ “Street Stories with Ed Bradley”. In 1992 after losing his job, at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Doug infiltrated a group of men who were plotting the kidnapping of a Dupont fortune heir and his wife. Doug has been a guest on national television and radio programs speaking on the stories he now writes as an investigative journalist. Catch Doug’s Podcast: @dougpoppa1