President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump joined a solemn crowd outside the White House on Monday afternoon, Oct. 2, for a moment of silence for the victims of a mass shooting in Las Vegas the night before.
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence walked out beside Trump. All present folded their hands and bowed their heads in silence as a bell tolled four times.
The president and vice president than walked back into the White House accompanied by their spouses. The crowds dispersed shortly afterward.
Trump called the shooting “an act of pure evil”. He offered condolences to the victims and their families, praised first responders, and called on Americans to come together as one in a time of crisis.
“In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has,” Trump said. “We call upon the bonds that unite us, our faith, our family, and our shared values. We call upon the bonds of citizenship, the ties of community, and the comfort of our common humanity.”
The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, was present with her husband Jared Kushner.
The barrage of bullets from the Mandalay Bay hotel into a crowd of 22,000 people lasted several minutes, causing panic. At least 515 people were injured as some fleeing fans trampled each other while police scrambled to locate the shooter.
Police on Monday identified the gunman as Stephen Paddock, who lived in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada. They did not know why he attacked the crowd and believed he acted alone. ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre, but U.S. officials said there was no evidence of that.
The preliminary death toll, which officials said could rise, eclipsed last year’s massacre of 49 people at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub by a gunman who pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Shocked concertgoers, some with blood on their clothing, wandered streets, where the flashing lights of the city’s gaudy casinos blended with those of emergency vehicles.
Police said Paddock had no criminal record. The gunman killed himself before police entered the hotel room he was firing from, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.
“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Lombardo said. “I can’t get into the mind of a psychopath.”
Federal officials said there was no evidence to link Paddock to terrorist organizations.
“We have determined to this point no connection with an international terrorist group,” Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Aaron Rouse told reporters.
U.S. officials discounted the claim of responsibility for the attack made by ISIS through its Amaq news agency.
Multiple Machine Guns
Lombardo said there were more than 10 rifles in the room where Paddock killed himself. His arsenal included multiple machine guns, according to a law enforcement official.U.S. law largely bans machine guns.
The shooting, just the latest in a string that have played out across the United States over recent years, sparked an outcry from some lawmakers about the pervasiveness of guns in the United States, but was unlikely to prompt action in Congress.
Efforts to pass federal laws on guns failed following mass shootings from the 2012 massacre of 26 young children and educators in Newtown, Connecticut, to the June attack on Republican lawmakers practicing for a charity baseball game.
Nevada has some of the most permissive gun laws in the United States. It does not require firearm owners to obtain licenses or register their guns.
House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, on Monday called on House Speaker Paul Ryan to create a select committee on gun violence.
“Congress has a moral duty to address this horrific and heartbreaking epidemic,” Pelosi wrote.
The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to bear arms, and gun-rights advocates staunchly defend that provision. U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has been outspoken about his support of the Second Amendment.
“It was an act of pure evil,” Trump said in a White House address.
The suspected shooter’s brother, Eric Paddock, said the family was stunned by the news.
‘Just Kept Going On’
Video of the attack showed panicked crowds fleeing as sustained rapid gunfire ripped through the area.“People were just dropping to the ground. It just kept going on,” said Steve Smith, a 45-year-old visitor from Phoenix, Arizona. He said the gunfire went on for an extended period of time.
“Probably 100 shots at a time,” Smith said. “It would sound like it was reloading and then it would go again.”
Shares of MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay, fell almost 5 percent on Monday to $30.98 a share.
Mike McGarry, a financial adviser from Philadelphia, was at the concert when he heard hundreds of shots ring out.
“It was crazy—I laid on top of the kids. They’re 20. I’m 53. I lived a good life,” McGarry said. The back of his shirt bore footmarks, after people ran over him in the panicked crowd.
