2017 Las Vegas shooting

On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred when 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada from his 32nd-floor suites in the Mandalay Bay hotel. He fired more than 1,000 rounds, killing 60 people and wounding at least 413 others. The ensuing panic brought the total number of injured to about 867. About an hour later, he was found dead in his room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The motive for the shooting is officially undetermined.

The incident is the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in American history. It focused attention on firearms laws in the U.S., particularly with regard to bump stocks, which Paddock used to fire shots in rapid succession, at a rate similar to that of automatic firearms. Bump stocks were banned by the U.S. Justice Department in December 2018, but the ban was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2024.

Background

Location

The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard immediately south of the city of Las Vegas in Clark County, Nevada. The Strip is known for its concentration of casinos and resort hotels, including the 43-story Mandalay Bay southwest of its intersection with Mandalay Bay Road, in the unincorporated town of Paradise.

Las Vegas Village, a 15-acre (6-hectare) lot used for outdoor performances, was located diagonally across the intersection to the northeast and owned by MGM Resorts International. From 2014 onward, the venue hosted the annual Route 91 Harvest country music festival. The 2017 festival ran from September 29 to October 1, with over 22,000 attendees on the final day.

Perpetrator

Stephen Paddock was a 64-year-old former auditor and real estate businessman who had been living 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Las Vegas in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada. He was twice divorced, had a long-term girlfriend, and had no known children. He was a son of Benjamin Paddock, a bank robber who was on the FBI's most-wanted list between 1969 and 1977. Paddock's only recorded interactions with law enforcement were traffic citations.

Paddock was a high-stakes gambler who placed bets at a high enough level to earn valuable comps—free benefits such as rooms and meals. He was a familiar figure to casino hosts in Las Vegas but was not well known among other high-stakes gamblers because he mostly played single-player video poker. He reportedly kept to himself and was a heavy drinker. Paddock had lost a significant amount of his wealth over the previous two years but had paid off all gambling debts before the shooting. In the year before the shooting, Paddock's girlfriend noted a change in his demeanor; he had become increasingly distant, and their relationship was no longer intimate.

Preparation

According to his girlfriend, Paddock repeatedly cased Las Vegas Village from different windows in their room when they stayed at the Mandalay Bay a month before the shooting. Paddock also may have considered attacking other events. He had researched large venues in cities such as Boston since at least May 2017 and had reserved a room overlooking the August 2017 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, but did not use it. From September 17, Paddock stayed at The Ogden in Downtown Las Vegas, which overlooked the open-air Life is Beautiful festival that ran from September 22 to 24. Paddock's internet search terms from mid-September included "swat weapons", "ballistics chart 308", "SWAT Las Vegas", and "do police use explosives".

Paddock arrived at Mandalay Bay on September 25, 2017, and booked into Room 32-135, a complimentary room on the 32nd floor. Four days later, he also checked into the directly connected Room 32-134. Both suites overlook the site of the concert at Las Vegas Village. During his stay at Mandalay Bay, Paddock spent much of his time gambling, usually at night. He interacted with employees more than ten times, including twice on the day of the shooting; an MGM Resorts International spokesperson said all the interactions were "normal in nature". Cell phone records show that he also made multiple visits to his home in Mesquite.

With help from hotel bellmen, he brought five suitcases to his room on September 25, seven on the 26th, two on the 28th, six on the 30th, and two on October 1.

On September 30, he placed "do not disturb" signs on the doors of both rooms.

Weaponry

Twenty-four firearms, a large quantity of ammunition, and numerous high-capacity magazines capable of holding up to 100 rounds each were found in the suite. Fourteen of the firearms were .223-caliber AR-15–style semi-automatic rifles: three manufactured by Colt, two by Daniel Defense, two by FN Herstal, two by LWRC International, two by POF-USA, one with a .223 Wylde chamber by Christensen Arms, one made-to-order by LMT, and one by Noveske. The others were eight .308-caliber AR-10–type rifles, one .308-caliber Ruger American bolt-action rifle, and one .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 342 revolver. All 14 of the AR-15 rifles were fitted with vertical forward grips; they also had bump stocks that used recoil to actuate their triggers nine times per second. The AR-10 rifles were equipped with various telescopic sights and mounted on bipods. Paddock was found to have fired a total of 1,058 rounds from 15 of the firearms: 1,049 from twelve AR-15-style rifles, eight from two AR-10-style rifles, and the round used to kill himself from the Smith & Wesson revolver.

During the subsequent investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined that the firearms found in his hotel room, along with more guns found in his homes, had been legally purchased in Nevada, California, Texas, and Utah. In the month preceding the shooting, he tried to buy tracer ammunition, but the gun dealer he approached did not have the item in stock. He bought tracer ammunition from a private seller at a gun show in Phoenix, Arizona. In addition, ammonium nitrate (often used in improvised explosive devices) was found in the trunk of his Hyundai Tucson SUV, along with 1,600 rounds of ammunition and 50 pounds (23 kg) of Tannerite, a binary explosive used to make explosive targets for gun ranges. Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said that while Paddock had "nefarious intent" with the material, he did not appear to have assembled an explosive device.

Attack

The mass shooting occurred between 10:05 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. on October 1, 2017, which was the third and final night of the festival. When the shooting began, country music singer Jason Aldean was giving the closing performance.

Shortly before 10:00 p.m., hotel security guard Jesus Campos was sent to the 32nd floor to investigate an open-door alert. When he attempted to open a door to the floor, he found that it would not open. After Campos entered the floor, he discovered an L-shaped bracket screwed into the door and its frame, preventing the door from opening. After reporting the discovery to his dispatch center, he heard what he thought was drilling in Room 32-135 and went to investigate.

About 10:05 p.m., Campos was hit in the right thigh by one of about 35 bullets that Paddock fired through the door of his suite. Campos took cover in the alcove between Rooms 32-122 and 32-124 and immediately informed the hotel by radio and cellphone that he had been shot, though he believed he had been shot with a BB or pellet gun. The wounded Campos then encountered Stephen Schuck, a maintenance worker who had arrived to fix the door that Campos had reported as barricaded. Campos told Schuck to take cover. Schuck contacted hotel dispatchers over his radio, informed them of the ongoing shooting, and told them to call the police. Neither the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department nor MGM Resorts International, the Mandalay Bay's owner, have confirmed when information about the initial shooting was relayed to the police.

Paddock used a hammer to break two of the windows in both of his suites. At 10:05 p.m., he began shooting through them. He ultimately fired more than 1,000 rifle rounds about 490 yards (450 m) into the festival audience. He started out with a few single gunshots before firing in bursts that usually ranged from 80 rounds to 100 rounds. Many people in the crowd initially mistook the gunfire for fireworks. During the shooting, a security fence hindered concertgoers from fleeing the 15-acre (6-hectare) concrete lot. The gunfire continued, with some momentary pauses, for ten minutes, ending by 10:15 p.m. During these pauses (during reload and while the assailant was confronting Campos), most concertgoers down below were able to flee the venue.

In addition to shooting at the concertgoers, Paddock fired eight bullets at a large jet fuel tank at McCarran International Airport 2,000 feet (600 m) away. Two of those bullets struck the exterior of the tank, with one bullet penetrating the tank. The fuel did not explode because jet fuel is mostly kerosene, which is unlikely to ignite when struck by a bullet.