26/11 insights may have prevented 1,000 deaths in Las Vegas
The hospital announced the visit in a post on Facebook.The post stated: "Our extreme gratitude to Country Music Star Jason Aldean for visiting UMC today.
A
thousand
deaths
may
have
been
prevented
in
Las
Vegas
thanks
to
a
handful
of
quick
thinking
cops.
Stephen
Paddock,
64-year-old
wealthy
former
accountant
and
high-stakes
gambler
has
been
identified
by
police
as
the
man
behind
the
deadliest
mass
shooting
in
modern
US
history
when
he
opened
fire
from
the
Mandalay
By
Hotel
and
Casino
on
October
1,
killing
58
people
and
wounding
nearly
500
others,
before
turning
the
gun
on
himself
as
police
closed
in.
Recalling the dreadful night, Joseph Lombardo, Sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Paddock was firing into a crowd of 22,000 concert-goers using powerful guns.
Lombardo said a small team of Las Vegas police officers - two K-9 officers, a detective and a SWAT team member - converged on the Mandalay Bay Hotel and minutes later, they breached the gunman's hotel room door on the 32nd floor.
It
was
specialised
training
that
allowed
them
to
act
so
quickly,
Lombardo
told
CBS'
60
Minutes.
"I
think
they
prevented
a
thousand
deaths,
and
I
think
it's
important
for
the
American
public
to
understand
that,"
Lombardo
said
on
Monday.
Lombardo had traveled to Mumbai after the November 2008 terrorist attacks on hotels and other sites by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militants that left 164 people dead, including some American nationals.
The
sheriff
said
he
had
gleaned
insight
from
the
trip
to
Mumbai,
and
his
department
now
reacts
faster
to
such
shootings,
quickly
forming
a
team
to
"cease
the
action'' of
the
assailant
on
their
own.
"Before
we
were
trained
to
form
a
perimeter
and
hope
for
the
best,"
Lombardo
said.
"Now
we're
trained
to
gather
up
and
go
get
it."
Sergeant Joshua Bitsko and Officer Dave Newton of the K9- unit had been training dogs when they heard the message over police radio about an active shooter. Newton said he saw so many guns. So many magazines.
"Stacks and stacks of magazines everywhere. Just in suitcases all neatly stacked against pillars, around the room, all stacked up, rifles placed all throughout. All kinds of monitors and electrical equipment he had in there. It just looked like almost a gun store," he said.
Joshua said he saw shell casings all over the floor where Paddock stayed.
"I could smell the - gun powder that - that had went off in the room. We were trippin' over guns. Trippin' over long guns inside. There was so many," he said.
At least 23 guns - 12 of which were equipped with bump-stocks, or rapid fire devices - were found inside Paddock's hotel room.
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US authorities have received more than 1,000 tips, but are still struggling to determine what motivated Paddock, who did not have a criminal record, to carry out the carefully planned attack.
No one knows when Paddock committed suicide, but the shooting stopped shortly after hotel security guard Jesus Campos and the first of Sheriff Lombardo's officers arrived on the 32nd floor.
Meanwhile, country singer Jason Aldean visited University Medical Center on Monday, just one week after the shooting that claimed the lives of 58 concertgoers and injured hundreds of others at the Route 91 Harvest festival.
The hospital announced the visit in a post on Facebook.The post stated: "Our extreme gratitude to Country Music Star Jason Aldean for visiting UMC today.
Jason spent time with our patients who were critically injured during the Las Vegas shooting. His visit helped heal hearts and cheer those who were wounded in this tragedy.
His pregnant wife, Brittany, posted a photo on Instagram of the couple embracing and looking towards the Mandalay Bay, which is where Paddock shot from a hotel suite at concert attendees, Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
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