Death Toll Rises at Mandalay Bay Shooting; Details Emerge About Killer

As we go to press this afternoon, the death toll from last night's shooting at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino has risen to 58, with at least 515 people injured. Attendees at the Route 91 country music festival where picked off by a sniper occupying a room on a high floor of the resort. The killer, who committed suicide onsite, has been identified as Stephen Paddock, a resident of Mesquite, Nevada, about 80 miles from Las Vegas. As of now, no motive has been suggested; indeed, Paddock, who was apparently well off, was a frequent patron of Vegas' casinos and showrooms. (An earlier report, in which ISIS claimed responsibility for the shootings, has been dismissed as false.)

As of now, the victims are only beginning to be identified.

The Guardian reports that an hour and 12 minutes elapsed between the first report to police of the shootings and Paddock's suicide. Most of the time was spent trying find the room from which he was operating.

This event is now the deadliest shooting in American history, making it worse than the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016.

Paddock's relatives have expressed deep shock and can suggest no possible motive for the killings. As a side note, Paddock's father, was a bank robber, and, according to Paddock's brother, may have spent time on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

Jason Aldean, Jake Owen, and Chris Young, all of whom performed at the festival -- Owen was on stage when the shooting occurred -- have publicly expressed their grief. Young tweeted: "Spent I don't know how long on the floor of a trailer behind the stage ... know multiple people are dead. Listening to that gunfire. "I'm not gonna say anything else other than I'm lucky to be alive. As are many others ... and so many people are gone ... this is heartbreaking."

President Trump has denounced the shooting as "an act of pure evil" and presided over a moment of silence earlier today. Politicians on various sides of the gun control question have issued their regular post-atrocity statements. Caleb Keeter, lead guitarist of the Josh Abbott Band tweeted, "I've been a proponent of the [second] amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was."

The Guardian reports that, in the early hours following the killings, stories on Facebook and Google appeared, falsely identifying the killer as someone named Geary Danley. The report adds, "It's unclear where exactly the hoax originated, but right-wing users aggressively promoted his name, seizing on evidence that he was a liberal."

The Guardian is providing regular updates at the link below.