New photos show Vegas shooter's dead body on the floor of his hotel room after he committed suicide (center). In the photo, Stephen Paddock (top right inset) wears a brown long-sleeved top, black slacks, loafers, and black gloves. Next to his body are two assault rifles, one of them set up on a bipod and one with a 'bump stock' added to make it effectively fully automatic. Dozens of spent shells litter the floor and in one corner magazines sit in neat stacks (top left). A hammer is also seen, which Paddock presumably used to smash open two windows in his suite. It was from both of those vantage points that Paddock fired on a crowd of 22,000 attending a music festival. He killed at least 58 people and injured 527 in the attack - the deadliest in U.S. history.
A leaked photo shows the Vegas shooter's body after he committed suicide in his hotel room Sunday night. Police are now investigating who leaked the images. There also appears to be a note on the table (in red circle) |
Photos show the horrifying scene SWAT teams encountered when they blew the door off the Las Vegas shooter's room and found him dead inside - as authorities reveal the mass murderer set up cameras in a door peephole and on a room service cart outside the room to warn him when police arrived.
The photos, leaked Tuesday, show Stephen Paddock's body on the floor of his suite in the Mandalay Bay resort and casino, which he used as a sniper's nest on Sunday night to open fire on 22,000 innocent people attending a music festival across the street.
Only the 64-year-old's legs, torso and left arm are visible in the photo, and he wears a typical outfit for a retiree: a brown long-sleeve t-shirt, black slacks and slip on loafers with white socks. The only thing that reveals his nefarious actions are the black gloves he's wearing.
Stephen Paddock broke two windows in his Mandalay Bay hotel room on Sunday, and then opened fire on 22,000 attending a concert across the street. Fifty-nine people were killed and 527 injured |
On the floor next to the body are two assault rifles, dozens of spent shells and a hammer - which he presumably used to shatter two windows in his two-room suite which he then used to shoot out of.
One of the assault rifles has a 'bump stock' added to it - making effectively fully automatic - allowing him to unleash hundreds of rounds per minute.
The branding on the gun indicates it was made by Daniel Defense, a Savannah-Georgia-based company which produces variants of the AR-15 rifle, based off the U.S. Army's M16. Another gun appears to be under his body.
Another photo shows how he pushed two sitting chairs together to form a cradle-like space to store at least two other rifles. Another AR-15-style rifle is seen at the foot of chairs with an extended magazine that would allow him to shoot for longer before reloading.
Behind a nearby pillar, about 15 magazines are piled in neat stacks. It's unclear if they are loaded or spent.
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Police say he shot at officers as they breached the door, but by the time they made it into the suite, Paddock had committed suicide.
Paddock killed 58 in the attack and injured 527. His death brought the total death count to 59.
On Tuesday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said they had identified all but three of the victims, and that the injured county might be slightly off because one of the hospitals was double counting patients. However, he didn't release a revised injured number.
In a Tuesday night conference, Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said that an investigation was underway to find out who leaked the photographs.
Speaking at the same press conference, Jill Sneider of the ATF said that no less than 12 of the rifles found in the room had bump-stock modifications.
In total, there were 23 firearms in the hotel room, including an AK-47, an AR-15-type gun, and a handgun.
But Paddock had still more guns stored in his two houses in Verdi, outside Reno, and Mesquite, bringing the total across all thee locations to 47, she said. They included rifles, shotguns and handguns bought from Nevada, Texas, Utah and California.
Also on Tuesday, video was released showing debris strewn outside the shooter's hotel room, from when the SWAT team blew the doors off the front door.
On the ground behind the double doors, one of Paddock's 23 firearms is seen set up on the ground with a bipod |
Outside the door, debris littered the carpeting in the hallway and crime scene tape covers the entrance to the room; just inside, yet another assault rifle set up on the ground, on a bipod.
At a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Lombardo confirmed that Paddock had cameras set up inside and outside of his room - including one on the food service cart. The peephole camera was revealed Tuesday evening by McMahill.
The cameras outside the room appear to have been used to warn Lombardo when police were outside. A source told the Washington Post that the cameras outside the room were connected to a tablet which streamed live footage of the hallway.
Cameras were also found inside the room, apparently to film the massacre. All of the footage is now being examined by the FBI.
An investigator works in the room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where a gunman opened fire from on a music festival Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017, in Las Vegas |
Also in the press conference on Tuesday evening, McMahill defended police for taking 72 minutes to breach the room where Paddock was holed up after first shots were reported at 10:08pm on Sunday.
McMahill said that patrol officers who had been managing the music festival quickly entered the hotel and began working their way up to the 32nd floor, where Paddock was located, evacuating each floor as they went - but that police couldn't act until the SWAT team arrived.
He also said that Paddock's gunfire ceased at around 10:19pm - 59 minutes before his room was breached. At that point, he said, SWAT stopped regarding Paddock as an active shooter and treated him as a less urgent barricade situation, since he was isolated in the room.
McMahill didn't make it clear exactly when the SWAT team was in place, but said that at 10:38pm, a security guard approaching Paddock's room was non-fatally shot. The guard, who is still in hospital, sent 'digital information' to cops, McMahill said.
Details of that incident have not yet been released, but it seems likely that Paddock spotted the guard approaching using the cameras he installed in the door's peephole and in a room service cart he'd left in the hallway.
SWAT raided the room at 11:20pm - something the McMahill said was acceptable because Paddock was no longer shooting and was barricaded in. He said the SWAT team was 'unconventional,' being made up of SWAT members, patrol cops and a K-9 unit.
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