By Corey Boice

On Sunday, October 1, 2017, at around 10 p.m., shots rang out during a Jason Aldean concert in Las Vegas. The shooter was sixty-four-year-old Steven Paddock from Mesquite, Nevada, and he was shooting from the thirty-second floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.

At first, concert-goers were unsure of what was happening until they heard the gunshots and saw individuals running. Those that could do so started running as well, but others hit the ground and remained low in hopes of not getting hit.

There were over twenty-two thousand people attending that evening’s concert as part of the three-day Harvest Festival. At least fifty-eight people were killed and over five hundred people were injured. Many of the injuries did come from bullet wounds, but there were also injuries from people jumping fences and being trampled. Some witnesses of the horrific event describe being covered in blood and not know whether it was theirs or someone else’s. There were also some witnesses who mentioned people had nowhere to hide or run because even the tents around the event were open and left the concert-goers vulnerable to injury.

Once police figured out where the shots were coming from, they made their way to the resort and casino. As they were approaching Paddock’s room, he took his own life. When the initial investigation started and information was released, it was revealed that Paddock had twenty-three guns in his room. It was also revealed that he had an additional nineteen firearms at his residence in Mesquite.

There were suspicions that Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, was somehow involved in the incident. Danley was quickly ruled out for having any affiliation with the incident because she had been overseas in the Philippines. Police are not sure what Paddock’s motive was or why he decided to open fire on the Harvest Festival. His brother, Eric Paddock, also had nothing to state regarding what his brother’s possible motive was for the killing.

Police are hopeful that they will figure out his purpose behind the massacre because they have no knowledge of what urged Paddock to commit the act. The police are certain that this was not a terrorist attack. Hopefully, more information will be revealed in regard to the shooter’s motives, because they sent Paddock’s brain to Stafford University to be examined. Police will reveal more when they know more about what triggered Paddock to initiate the killings.