--- description: Authorities have not yet named a motive for the attack title: What We Still Don't Know About the Las Vegas Shooting image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d7dd1b20ffe934e/6988e046929fad6babbedec9/las-vegas-shooting-motive.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Las Vegas](/tag/las-vegas/) ## Las Vegas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # What We Still Don't Know About the Las Vegas Shooting by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Oct 3, 2017 1:29 PM CUT  Mourners attend a candlelight vigil at the corner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard for the victims of Sunday night's mass shooting, October 2, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mourners attend a candlelight vigil at the corner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard for the victims of Sunday night's mass shooting, October 2, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Oct 3, 2017 1:29 PM CUT Authorities are still looking into the motive behind the mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas that left 59 people dead and hundreds of others injured, in what has become the [deadliest mass shooting](http://time.com/4966656/las-vegas-mass-shooting-acts-heroism/ "undefined") in modern U.S. history. The gunman, Stephen Paddock, a [64-year-old retired accountant](http://time.com/4966239/stephen-paddock-hotel-room-guns/ "undefined"), killed himself as authorities got into his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay casino and hotel. The Associated Press reports Paddock had been staying at the hotel since Thursday and had 23 guns in his room. Authorities also found 19 more guns at Paddock’s home, along with explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition. While investigators believe he acted alone, they still have no explanation as to why [Paddock shot into a crowd of concert-goers](http://time.com/4966835/route-91-harvest-festival-las-vegas-shooting/ "undefined"). “I can’t get into the mind of a psychopath at this point,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told the AP. Authorities are also examining the collection of weapons amassed by Paddock. Of the 23 guns Paddock had at [Mandalay Bay](http://time.com/4965095/mandalay-bay-resort-casino-hotel-las-vegas-shooting/ "undefined"), some had scopes, law enforcement officers said. Two officials told the AP that authorities found two gun stocks that would have allowed Paddock to modify weapons to make them fully automatic. A trauma surgeon who operated on numerous shooting victims Sunday night said the injuries he saw did not come from typical weapons. “It was very clear that the first patient I took back and operated on that this was a high-powered weapon,” Coates said. “This wasn’t a normal street weapon. This was something that did a lot of damage when it entered the body cavity.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4966837/las-vegas-shooting-motive-weapons/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4966837/las-vegas-shooting-motive-weapons/"},"headline":"What We Still Don't Know About the Las Vegas Shooting","datePublished":"2017-10-03T13:29:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:42:16.622Z","description":"Authorities have not yet named a motive for the attack","url":"https://time.com/4966837/las-vegas-shooting-motive-weapons/","keywords":["Las Vegas","onetime","las vegas shooting"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d7dd1b20ffe934e/6988e046929fad6babbedec9/las-vegas-shooting-motive.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8d7dd1b20ffe934e/6988e046929fad6babbedec9/las-vegas-shooting-motive.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mass Shooting At Mandalay Bay In Las Vegas Leaves At Least 50 Dead","caption":"Mass Shooting At Mandalay Bay In Las Vegas Leaves At Least 50 Dead","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/las-vegas/","name":"Las Vegas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4966837/las-vegas-shooting-motive-weapons/","name":"What We Still Don't Know About the Las Vegas Shooting"}}]}] ```