On October 1st, 2017, Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old man opened fire at the route 91 harvest music festival on the Las Vegas strip. He was on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay & had been shooting from his window. He had fourteen AR-15 rifles, eight AR-10 rifles, a bolt action rifle, & a revolver. Between 10:05 & 10:15 p.m. PDT, he had fired over 1,000 rounds of ammo. When police went to investigate his hotel room they found him dead due to a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. This is the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in US history.
Stephen Paddock
Paddock was a retired auditor & real estate businessman who lived 80 miles from Las Vegas. He was a twice-divorced atheist. His father was Benjamin Paddock, a bank robber on the FBI’s most-wanted list between 1969 to 1977. He had a long term girlfriend & no known children. He was a high stakes gambler & a heavy drinker. He had lost a lot of money the two years prior but had paid off all of his gambling debt right before the shooting.
Aftermath
58 people had died; 36 women, 22 men. Youngest was 20 & the oldest was 67. 31 of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene while the 27 others had died at the hospital. Around 868 people were injured from the incident. McCarran International Airport, adjacent to the shooting, was shut down for several hours. Around 300 people entered the airport as they fled from the shooting. This prompted officials to shut down all four runways. Over 25 flights were rerouted to ensure that no plane would be hit by gunfire, while other flights were canceled before airfield operations resumed at 12:40 a.m. on October 2. On the morning after the incident, hundreds of people had lined up to donate blood. Around 800 units were donated the days following. On October 2nd President Trump issued a proclamation to honor the victims & their families. & on October 4th He had visited the victims & first responders.
Recent news
A judge recently approved an $800 million settlement for the victims of the shooting. After months of negotiations, the owner of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas agreed to the settlement. That sum will be divided among 4,000 claimants in the class action suit. MGM stated that only $49 million of the settlement would come from the company’s funds, with the remaining $751 million being covered by liability insurance.
It’s safe to say that this is probably one of the worst events to happen in modern history. It has devastated thousands of Americans and we still don’t know why Stephen did it. But it’s good that the families and people who have been hurt, physically or mentally, are finally getting justice after 3 years. It is sad that it took this long for them to come to an agreement but it can hopefully help the families and people impacted by this shooting.
