{"id":25786,"date":"2017-10-02T13:12:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-02T13:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/10\/02\/at-least-50-killed-as-gunman-opens-fire-at-las-vegas-concert\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:31:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:31:36","slug":"at-least-50-killed-as-gunman-opens-fire-at-las-vegas-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/2017\/10\/02\/at-least-50-killed-as-gunman-opens-fire-at-las-vegas-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m going to die\u2019: High-rise gunman kills 59 in Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LAS VEGAS \u2014 The rapid-fire popping sounded like firecrackers at first, and many in the crowd of 22,000 country music fans didn\u2019t understand what was happening when the band stopped playing and singer Jason Aldean bolted off the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s gunshots,\u201d a man could be heard saying emphatically on a cellphone video in the nearly half-minute of silence and confusion that followed. A woman pleaded with others: \u201cGet down! Get down! Stay down!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the pop-pop-pop noise resumed. And pure terror set in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople start screaming and yelling and we start running,\u201d said Andrew Akiyoshi, who provided the cellphone video to The Associated Press. \u201cYou could feel the panic. You could feel like the bullets were flying above us. Everybody\u2019s ducking down, running low to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some concertgoers hit the ground, others pushed for the crowded exits, shoving through narrow gates and climbing over fences as 40- to 50-round bursts of automatic weapons fire rained down on them from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Monday afternoon, 59 victims were dead and 527 injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou just didn\u2019t know what to do,\u201d Akiyoshi said. \u201cYour heart is racing and you\u2019re thinking, \u2018I\u2019m going to die.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gunman, identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, a 64-year-old retired accountant from Mesquite, Nevada, killed himself before officers stormed Room 135 in the gold-colored glass skyscraper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The avid gambler who according to his brother made a small fortune investing in real estate had been staying there since Thursday and had busted out windows to create his sniper\u2019s perch roughly 500 yards from the concert grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motive for the attack remained a mystery, with Sheriff Joseph Lombardo saying: \u201cI can\u2019t get into the mind of a psychopath at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Police officers advise people to take cover near the scene of a shooting near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017, in Las Vegas. (John Locher\/AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paddock had 16 rifles \u2014 some of them with scopes \u2014 and a handgun in his hotel room, Lombardo said. Two were modified to make them fully automatic, according to two U.S. officials briefed by law enforcement who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still unfolding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Paddock\u2019s home, authorities found 18 more guns, explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Also, several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be turned into explosives such as those used in the 1995 Oklahoma bombing, were in his car, the sheriff said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI said it found nothing so far to suggest the attack was connected to international terrorism, despite a claim of responsibility from the Islamic State group, which said Paddock was a \u201csoldier\u201d who had recently converted to Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\t