Newsela

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — On Sunday night, a gunman perched on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas casino unleashed a torrent of bullets on an outdoor country music festival. He killed 59 people as and tens of thousands of concertgoers screamed and ran for their lives, officials said Monday. 

It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Authorities said 527 other victims were taken to the hospital.

No Word On Shooter's Motive

Special police forces using explosives stormed the gunman's hotel room and found he had killed himself, authorities said. He had as many as 10 guns with him, including rifles, they said.

There was no immediate word on the shooter's motive for the bloodbath.

Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said authorities believe it was a 'lone wolf' attack — that he acted alone. And the U.S. Homeland Security Department, which is responsible for the nation's safety, said no other public venues were specifically in danger in the U.S.

Country music star Jason Aldean was performing Sunday night at the end of the three-day Route 91 Harvest Festival in front of a crowd of more than 22,000. That's when the gunman opened fire from inside the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across the street.

The gunman was identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, age 64, of Mesquite, Nevada. He had checked into the hotel room on Thursday, authorities said.

Las Vegas Officials Seek Help

'What we are going to try to do as best we can is to get our first responders back on their feet and responding and conducting a proper investigation to ensure that we have the safety of this community at heart,' the sheriff said.

Paddock's brother, Eric Paddock, who lives in Florida, spoke to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. 'We are completely dumbfounded. We can't understand what happened,' he said.

Las Vegas authorities put out a call for blood donations and set up a hotline to report missing people and speed up the identification of the dead and wounded. They also opened a 'family reunification center' for people to find loved ones.

A Flurry Of Pops And Flashes

Aldean was in the middle of a song when the shots came rapidly: pop-pop-pop-pop. Video footage showed Aldean stopping and the crowd getting quiet as if it were unsure of what had happened.

The gunman paused and then fired another stream of bullets, the flashes visible from the casino, as victims fell to the ground while others fled in panic. Some hid behind concession stands, while others crawled under parked cars.

Kodiak Yazzie, who is 36, said the music stopped temporarily when the first shots began and then started up again. Then, the second round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.

'It was the craziest stuff I've ever seen in my entire life,' Yazzie said. 'You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay. You could see a flash, flash, flash, flash.'

Monique Dumas, who is from British Columbia in Canada, said she was at the concert, six rows from the stage. She thought she heard a bottle breaking, then a burst of pops that sounded like fireworks.

'A Devastating Time'

Couples held hands as they ran through the dirt lot. Faces were etched with shock and confusion, and people wept and screamed. Some were bloodied, and some were carried out by fellow concertgoers. Dozens of ambulances took away the wounded, while some people loaded victims into their cars and drove them to the hospital.

Police shut down busy Las Vegas Boulevard, and federal and state authorities converged on the scene. Interstate 15 was briefly closed, and flights at the city's McCarran International Airport were suspended. Hospital emergency rooms were jammed with victims.

The dead included at least three off-duty police officers from various departments who were attending the concert, authorities said. Two on-duty officers were wounded, one critically, police said. 'It's a devastating time,' the sheriff said.

President Trump Responds

Hours after the shooting, Aldean posted on Instagram that he and his crew were safe and that the shooting was 'beyond horrific.'

'It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night,' the country star said.

President Donald Trump put out a tweet before giving a larger speech. His tweet said: 'My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!'

President Trump said he also plans to come to Las Vegas on Wednesday to meet with law enforcement and the victims' families.

Before Sunday, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history took place in June 2016. During that shooting, a gunman who professed support for Muslim extremist groups opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people.

Sunday's shooting was one of a few concert attacks over the past few years. About four months ago, a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, killed 22 people. In 2015, almost 90 people were killed by gunmen inspired by Islamic State at a music performance in Paris by the rock band Eagles of Death Metal.