For suspected shooter Stephen Paddock to carry out the deadliest shooting in modern American history, he likely needed a powerful gun.
When a SWAT team raided his 32nd floor hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, they found at least 10 rifles. (Police say Paddock died prior to law enforcement entering the room.) While details about the firearms haven’t yet been released, Paddock fired hundreds of bullets into the crowd of concert-goers below, killing at least 50 people and wounding hundreds more.
Recordings suggest he was using an automatic weapon. “Automatic weapon(s) like that — had to be numbers of magazines or a very large drum, it sounded to me like a belt-fed weapon, a military-style weapon and then to be shooting down, to use the analogy, it was like shooting fish in a barrel in that space,” CNN law enforcement analyst James Gagliano said.
Eric Paddock, the suspect’s brother, said Stephen Paddock did not have a military background. “The fact that he had those kind of weapons is just — where the hell did he get automatic weapons?” he told CBS. “He has no military background or anything like that. He’s just a guy who lived in a house in Mesquite, drove down and gambled in Las Vegas.”
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