'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
In October 2017, thousands of people were attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas when a gunman began shooting at the crowd.
The massacre, now dubbed the Las Vegas concert mass shooting, claimed 58 lives and left more than 850 injured. The infamous act of terrorism is often considered one of the biggest tragedies in modern history.
The gunman was identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, who allegedly had no evident motive for the act. Paddock began shooting from his 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Hotel on the Las Vegas strip.
Meanwhile, photographer David Becker was covering the event that night and managed to click some harrowing pictures of the scene. Speaking about the incident, he said:
"People were fleeing, they were panicking... The gunfire was sporadic. It would stop and then more shots, then a lull and then more shots. I could hear people yelling at them to shut off the lights, to be quiet."
The details of this case are terrifying and inexplicable, and here are five such details about the Las Vegas concert mass shooting.
Five quick facts about the Las Vegas concert mass shooting
1) Paddock arrived at the hotel room days before the shooting
One of the things that made Paddock's crime incredibly unpredictable was the fact that he had meticulously planned each step of the attack. He checked in at the hotel a week before the shooting and asked for a high-level suite that overlooked the Route 91 Harvest festival. Although he didn't immediately get the suite, he was moved into the one he wanted the night before the attack.
Authorities noted that Paddock had 23 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition in his room, which he meticulously smuggled in.
2) The shooting began during Jason Aldean's performance
On the night of the attack, October 1, 2017, Jason Aldean's performance was the closing act and it began at around 9:30 pm. However, just half an hour after his performance began, the firing started.
Aldean was able to get away from the scene without any harm.
3) It took the crowd some time to figure out that they were being shot at due to the loud music
Paddock's attack was random in many ways. He opened fire on the crowd from the window of his 32nd-floor hotel room window at a crowd of over 22,000 people. His attack was not directed at any particular segment of the crowd.
Owing to the distance between the shooter and the crowd and the loud music, it took some time for people to realize that they were being shot at.
4) The police initially assumed that there was more than one gunman
As police began covering the area and waiting for backup, they initially speculated that there were possibly three shooters in the room. Around 40 minutes after the attack, authorities confirmed that there was only one active shooter at the scene.
The shooter, Paddock, was finally located an hour or so later.
5) Authorities found Paddock dead when they breached his room
A strike team breached and entered Paddock's room, an hour and five minutes later only to find him dead on the ground. The shooter had allegedly shot himself in the head.
However, authorities were unable to find a motive for the attack as Paddock wasn't a part of any hate group and didn't even have a prior criminal history.
To date, the Las Vegas concert mass shooting of 2017 remains one of the biggest tragedies in modern history.
