Las Vegas shooting: Stephen Paddock set up cameras around hotel room while girlfriend is 'person of interest' - as it happened
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At least 59 people were killed and 527 injured when a gunman rained bullets on crowds at a Las Vegas music festival.
A day on from the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, police are desperately seeking to understand what drove Stephen Paddock to discharge "clip after clip" into the 22,000 revellers at the Route 91 Harvest festival.
The 64-year-old "lone wolf" attacker, equipped with at least 23 weapons and two tripods, fired rifles out of two different windows from his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel before killing himself as police stormed his hideout.
Another 19 guns were found at a property occupied by Paddock about 80 miles away in Mesquite, Nevada.
Officials said he had altered those legally purchased weapons to operate on automatic before he began his deadly spree at around 10:08pm on Sunday.
Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said he was unable to speculate as to his motive, saying: "I can't get into the mind of a psychopath."
Authorities believe Paddock acted alone and dismissed suggestions he had any links to international terror, despite claims from Isis's news agency Amaq that he converted to Islam months before the shooting.
Video posted on social media appeared to show the moment the gunfire broke out as country star Jason Aldean performed, sparking mass chaos and scattering the crowd.
The massacre has reignited an outpouring of anger over the nation's lax gun ownership laws, which are protected by the second amendment.
As the nation was left reeling from the massacre, carried out in one of the world’s most iconic cities, Donald Trump sought to offer solace and condolence, first on Twitter and later in a sombre, televised address.
“In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has,” he said
Speaking on Tuesday morning, the President described the killer as a "sick, demented man".
In February, Mr Trump signed a resolution blocking an Obama-era rule that would have prevented an estimated 75,000 people with mental disorders from buying guns.
The rule was part of former President Barack Obama's push to strengthen the federal background check system following the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut shooting – the deadliest school shooting in US history.
As America wakes up a day after its worst mass shooting in history, here is a recap of this morning’s latest developments:
- Vigils have been held for the 59 killed and more than 500 injured. A registered nurse who died shielding his wife from gunfire and a school teacher engaged to be married are among the dead.
- Police are still struggling to identify a motive for Paddock’s killing spree
- The gunman who unleashed hundreds of rounds of gunfire on a crowd of concertgoers in Las Vegas had two "bump-stocks" that could have converted semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic ones, officials said
- US citizens living near scenes of mass public shootings are more likely to prefer stricter gun control, according to new research
↵With the political focus turning to gun control laws, we have a report on why America's ever-powerful National Rifle Association has gone silent, and how it still plans to defeat gun control
Attention is also turning to increased security in public venues. One casino magnate - Steve Wynn - says the industry is planning a raft of new measures in the wake of the killing, including invisible metal detectors and specially trained guards.
A G Burnett, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, has also suggested security could be ramped up. “We were always worried about something like this happening on the casino floor, but this was outside the casino,” he said. “We will continue our efforts in speaking with Las Vegas casinos on bolstering their security.”
Others are less convinced about the need to overhaul securtiy protocols. David Shepherd, former director of security for the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino, said: "Security has to be effective but not intrusive. We’ve had one event. Are we are going to change everything after one event?”
The concern is that any new measures would be either too intrusive or ineffective. Casino security expert Steven Baker said standard M-16 rifles, for example, can be broken down to fit in a suitcase. “If I can take a suitcase to my room I can have that in there. Nowhere do we have the full out screening of baggage like we do in airports. The logistics of doing that are huge."
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has singled out a Philadelphia financial planner as a hero during Sunday night's mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Sanders told reporters Monday that Mike McGarry lay atop younger people at the country music concert targeted by a gunman in a nearby hotel.
McGarry told KYW-TV that he did it because, "I'm 53, they're in their 20s. I lived a decent life so far, I'd rather them live longer than me."
McGarry didn't realize he'd been praised nationally because he was on a flight home when Sanders addressed the media. He says his wife, a registered nurse, was more of a hero than him — putting a tourniquet on one of those wounded.
McGarry says, "We're just trying to help other people. I don't think I did anything spectacular."
House Speaker Paul Ryan has urged Americans to look to the acts of heroism that emerged in the wake of Sunday's tragedy.
"We cannot let the evil actions of a single person define us as a country. What defines us is the heroism we saw during and after the attack," he said.
A man who lost both legs in the Boston Marathon bombing says he has a message for people injured in Las Vegas: "You will live again."
"To those who lost friends and loved ones—I’m so sorry. I know there are no words that can bring comfort but please know that the world is behind you," Jeff Bauman wrote on his Facebook page.
"To the victims waking up in a hospital right now wondering how life will ever be the same...I know your pain. The most important advice I can give is to remember that healing your mind is just as important as healing your physical, visible injuries.
"It took me too many years and dark moments to realize that and it is so, so important. You will walk again. You will laugh again. You will dance again. You will live again."
FBI director Christopher Wray revealed that more than 2,000 terrorism cases were currently under investigation during his first testimony before a Senate Committee.
Significantly, that number was split almost equally between acts of Muslim and right-wing extremists, representing a complex challenge for the authorities to counter an increasingly diverse threat, writes The Independent's defence correspondent Kim Sengupta.
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