On October 1st, 2017, at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada, there was a mass shooting. Over 22,000 people were attending this 3-day country music festival. Midway through Jason alldeans performance, he was interrupted by what he thought was a malfunction in the sound system. But soon, Jason’s security rushed on stage and directed him to take cover.
Little did the crowd know that on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock was opening fire on a crowd of over 22,000. The Mandalay Bay Hotel is a 43-story luxury resort and casino at the south end of the Las Vegas strip, right across the road(0.5 miles) from where the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival was being held.
At 9:59, Stephen Paddock shot a hotel security guard on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel. At 10:05 he started to open fire on the crowd of over 22,000 people. Stephen Paddock fired 12 rounds in 11 minutes, more than 1,000 shots between 10:0510:16. He used a 14 .223-caliber AR-15, an 8 .308-caliber AR-10, a .308-caliber bolt-action, and lastly, a .38-caliber revolver to commit this mass shooting.
Stephen Paddock killed over 60 people and wounded more than 500, which does not include the 867 people injured by the panic and rush of the crowd. People in the crowd didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know if it was fireworks or gunshots until people started to drop like flies. When people noticed that they were getting shot at, they panicked and started to run. But there was nowhere to run, they were locked in by gates that led out to the parking lot. People were seen jumping the gates and people that couldn’t, were left behind.
Police finally arrive on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, at 10:26. They still are unsure of what’s going on. They started to clear every room on that floor “looking for injured people,” and they no longer heard gunfire, at 10:55 officers arrived at the stairwell at the opposite end of the hallway closet to the padlock’s room. At 11:20 officers enter Paddock’s room, and see him dead, on the floor. At 11:27 officers dispatch that the suspect is down. Paddock committed suicided after killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds. To this day the reason for Stephen’s mass murder is still unknown, nor has it been inspected further. RIP to any that this monster took, and may justice be served one day.
