Las Vegas: Stephen Paddock responsible for deadliest shooting in modern US history

Stephen Paddock killed at least 50 people and wounded hundreds of others in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

At least 50 people were killed and more than 400 wounded when Stephen Paddock opened fire on an outdoor music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said officers confronted Paddock, 64, on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across the street from the concert. Paddock is dead.

Paddock’s motives are yet unclear, but terrorism has been ruled out as a possibility. Fox News reports that Paddock was known to authorities and that his hotel room shows he had prepared extensively for the attack.

Lombardo said that Paddock was in the possession of least 10 guns during the attack and that he probably committed suicide as the SWAT team entered his room.

Previously, the deadliest mass shooting was an attack at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub that killed 49. Before that, the deadliest shooting in the US was the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech, in which a student killed 32 people before killing himself.

Las Vegas police say they’ve determined that a woman they were seeking – 62-year-old Marilou Danley, the shooter’s companion – is no longer considered a “person of interest” in the deadly shooting.

‘Dumbfounded’

Paddock’s brother, Eric, said that Stephen was a normal guy who must have “snapped” before carrying out the mass shooting. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Eric said that “something happened” to make his brother commit the mass murder.

Eric said that there was “absolutely no indication he could do something like this” and that Stephen had no political or religious affiliation.

Speaking from his home in Orlando, Florida, Eric said: “We know absolutely nothing, this is just, we are dumbfounded.”

President Donald Trump extended his condolences to the victims of the shooting in Las Vegas and their families.

In a tweet Monday, Trump offered “my warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!”

“We are monitoring the situation closely and offer our full support to state and local officials. All of those affected are in our thoughts and prayers,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

By: AP and World Israel News Staff