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Who is gunman Stephen Paddock?
First pic of Las Vegas shooter behind attack STEPHEN Paddock has been identified as the
man behind the worst mass shooting in US history.
At least 50 people were killed and over 200 injured last night at the Route 91 country
music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.
A gunman rained down rapid fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino
for several minutes.
Police confirmed the dead suspect is 64-year-old Paddock – a white man who had no criminal
past.
They said he had "numerous" weapons in his room including machine guns and shotguns.
Police blew the door off his hotel room and found Paddock dead inside – suggesting he
killed himself.
He lived in a retirement community in the nearby Nevada city of Mesquite – just an
hour’s drive to Las Vegas.
He was described as a "local man" and a "lone wolf" by Sheriff Joseph Lombardo.
Police launched a hunt for his “roommate”, Marilou Danley, who he was staying with at
the hotel and have since found her.
There is no sign yet as to why he carried out the mass shooting and at the moment police
don’t think he had a political motive.
But jihadi death cult ISIS claimed responsibility for the atrocity this afternoon, boasting
that "Paddock converted to Islam months ago".
And the rampage was reminiscent of a mass shooting at a Paris rock concert in November
2015 that killed 89 people, as part of a coordinated attack by Islamist militants that left 130
dead.
Thousands of panicked people fled the scene last night, in some cases trampling one another
as law enforcement officers scrambled to locate and kill the gunman.
Eric Paddock, the shooter’s brother, told ABC News that the family was completely “dumbstruck”
by the news, likening the revelation to being “crushed by an asteroid.”
Shocked concertgoers, some with blood on their clothes, wandered the streets after the attack.
It was the deadliest mass shooting ever in the United States.
The previous one was an ISIS attack which killed 49 people at an Orlando nightclub in
June 2016.
"We have no idea what his belief system was," Sheriff Lombardo said.
"Right now, we believe he was the sole aggressor and the scene is static."
Lombardo said rumours of other shootings or explosives such as car bombs in the area were
proven to be false.
Video taken of the attack showed panicked crowds fleeing as sustained rapid gunfire
ripped through the area.
Las Vegas' casinos, nightclubs and shopping draw some 3.5 million visitors from around
the world each year.
Last night the area was packed with visitors when the shooting broke out shortly after
10pm local time.
Mike McGarry, a 53-year-old financial adviser from Philadelphia, said he was at the concert
when he heard hundreds of shots ring out.
"It was crazy – I laid on top of the kids.
They're 20.
I'm 53.
I lived a good life," McGarry said.
The back of his shirt bore footmarks, after people ran over him in the panicked crowd.
At least one police officer was hospitalised with critical injuries, Lombardo said.
The shooting broke out on the last night of the three-day Route 91 Harvest festival, a
sold-out event attended by thousands and featuring top country singers.
The United States has been blighted by a series of deadly mass shootings in recent years.
Prior to Orlando, the deadliest shooting occurred in April 2007 when a gunman killed 32 people
at Virginia Tech university.
In December 2012 a man killed 26 young children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School
in Newtown, Connecticut.