Vegas cops baffled
While the world has responded with condolences and flags are at half-mast in the US, no one knows why the retired accountant did it.
The victims just kept coming. In private cars, in ambulances waiting four or five deep, from the walking wounded to the barely alive, they arrived in droves.
“I have no idea who I operated on,” said Jay Coates, a trauma surgeon whose hospital took in many of the wounded after a gunman opened fire from a Las Vegas hotel window on a country concert below.
“They were coming in so fast, we were taking care of bodies. We were just trying to keep people from dying.”
As Sunday night led to Monday morning, the attack became the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history with 59 killed and 527 wounded.
University Medical Centre of southern Nevada was one of many hospitals that were overflowing.
“Every bed was full,” Coates said. “We had people in the hallways, people outside and more people coming in.”
He said the huge, horrifying wounds on his operating table that told him it wasn't just the massive numbers that made this shooting different.
“It was very clear that the first patient I took back and operated on that this was a high-powered weapon,” Coates said.
“This wasn't a normal street weapon. This was something that did a lot of damage when it entered the body cavity,” Coates said.
The gunman, 64-year-old retired accountant Stephen Paddock, killed himself as authorities stormed his hotel room.
He had 23 guns - some with scopes - in the room at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino where he had been staying since Thursday. He knocked out two windows to create sniper's perches he used to rain torrents of bullets on the crowd of 22 000 some 500 yards away, authorities said.
Two guns were modified to make them fully automatic, according to officials briefed by law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.
At Paddock's home, authorities found 19 more guns, explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Also, several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser that can be turned into explosives, were in his car, authorities said.
Authorities believe Paddock acted alone. While he appeared to have no criminal history, his father was a bank robber who was on the FBI's most-wanted list in the 1960s.
“I can't even make something up,” his brother in Florida, Eric Paddock, said when asked what might have motivated his brother. “There's just nothing.”
Authorities also had nothing to say about Paddock's motive.
Paddock appeared to fire unhindered for more than 10 minutes, according to radio traffic, as police frantically tried to locate him.
The crowd, funnelled tightly into a wide-open space, had little cover and no easy way to escape. Victims fell to the ground, while others fled in panic. Some hid behind concession stands or crawled under parked cars.
“It was chaos - people just running for their lives. People trying to get down. Trying to get to their loved ones that had gotten hit,” said Shaun Topper. “It was just, you know. It was chaos.”
President Donald Trump decried the massacre as an “act of pure evil” on Monday, but refrained from addressing calls for gun control or an unproven claim of responsibility from the Islamic State group.
Calling for unity, Trump instead tried to console the nation - an act that has become a grim rite of passage for modern US presidents as each mass shooting rekindles the divisive national debate on gun control. “In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one - and it always has,” Trump said.
“Our unity cannot be shattered by evil. Our bonds cannot be broken by violence.
“And though we feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that defines us today - and always will, forever.”
Hillary Clinton hit out at the gun manufacturers lobby - the National Rifle Association - which has backed a congressional push to make it easier to obtain a gun silencer.
“The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer,” tweeted Clinton, whose Democratic Party has tried in vain to introduce lasting gun control measures despite the national scourge of mass shootings.
“Our grief isn't enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”
World leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sent condolence messages to President Donald Trump.
Before Sunday, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history took place in June 2016, when a gunman who professed support for Muslim extremist groups opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people.
Historically, the United States has had a number of mass shootings surpassing Sunday's attack. For example, more than 100 black people were gunned down during a mass shooting in Colfax, Louisiana, in 1873.
NAMPA/AP
“I have no idea who I operated on,” said Jay Coates, a trauma surgeon whose hospital took in many of the wounded after a gunman opened fire from a Las Vegas hotel window on a country concert below.
“They were coming in so fast, we were taking care of bodies. We were just trying to keep people from dying.”
As Sunday night led to Monday morning, the attack became the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history with 59 killed and 527 wounded.
University Medical Centre of southern Nevada was one of many hospitals that were overflowing.
“Every bed was full,” Coates said. “We had people in the hallways, people outside and more people coming in.”
He said the huge, horrifying wounds on his operating table that told him it wasn't just the massive numbers that made this shooting different.
“It was very clear that the first patient I took back and operated on that this was a high-powered weapon,” Coates said.
“This wasn't a normal street weapon. This was something that did a lot of damage when it entered the body cavity,” Coates said.
The gunman, 64-year-old retired accountant Stephen Paddock, killed himself as authorities stormed his hotel room.
He had 23 guns - some with scopes - in the room at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino where he had been staying since Thursday. He knocked out two windows to create sniper's perches he used to rain torrents of bullets on the crowd of 22 000 some 500 yards away, authorities said.
Two guns were modified to make them fully automatic, according to officials briefed by law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.
At Paddock's home, authorities found 19 more guns, explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Also, several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser that can be turned into explosives, were in his car, authorities said.
Authorities believe Paddock acted alone. While he appeared to have no criminal history, his father was a bank robber who was on the FBI's most-wanted list in the 1960s.
“I can't even make something up,” his brother in Florida, Eric Paddock, said when asked what might have motivated his brother. “There's just nothing.”
Authorities also had nothing to say about Paddock's motive.
Paddock appeared to fire unhindered for more than 10 minutes, according to radio traffic, as police frantically tried to locate him.
The crowd, funnelled tightly into a wide-open space, had little cover and no easy way to escape. Victims fell to the ground, while others fled in panic. Some hid behind concession stands or crawled under parked cars.
“It was chaos - people just running for their lives. People trying to get down. Trying to get to their loved ones that had gotten hit,” said Shaun Topper. “It was just, you know. It was chaos.”
President Donald Trump decried the massacre as an “act of pure evil” on Monday, but refrained from addressing calls for gun control or an unproven claim of responsibility from the Islamic State group.
Calling for unity, Trump instead tried to console the nation - an act that has become a grim rite of passage for modern US presidents as each mass shooting rekindles the divisive national debate on gun control. “In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one - and it always has,” Trump said.
“Our unity cannot be shattered by evil. Our bonds cannot be broken by violence.
“And though we feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that defines us today - and always will, forever.”
Hillary Clinton hit out at the gun manufacturers lobby - the National Rifle Association - which has backed a congressional push to make it easier to obtain a gun silencer.
“The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer,” tweeted Clinton, whose Democratic Party has tried in vain to introduce lasting gun control measures despite the national scourge of mass shootings.
“Our grief isn't enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”
World leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sent condolence messages to President Donald Trump.
Before Sunday, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history took place in June 2016, when a gunman who professed support for Muslim extremist groups opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people.
Historically, the United States has had a number of mass shootings surpassing Sunday's attack. For example, more than 100 black people were gunned down during a mass shooting in Colfax, Louisiana, in 1873.
NAMPA/AP
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