A senseless terror in Las Vegas

Authorities in Las Vegas said that the gunman who killed dozens of people at a country music festival had planned the massacre by placing cameras in his room and in the nearby hallway so that he could see when police were closing in on him.

“It was pre-planned extensively and I am pretty sure that he had evaluated everything that he did in his actions, which is troublesome,” Joseph Lombardo, the sheriff of the Las Vegas Police Department, said.

The sheriff said that one of the cameras was hidden in a food service cart in the hallway outside of the rooms he had rented. He said that the purpose of that camera was to give the gunman a video feed that would warn him when police were close.

Lombardo also said that his office had opened an investigation into the unauthorized release of images that show the crime scene, which includes the bullet riddled door to his rooms that were used by the gunman who was identified as Stephen Paddock and that he shot at hotel security before taking his own life.

In photographs that were taken by a news magazine, a portion of Paddock’s two-room suite was visible. Again, a scope with a stand could also be seen inside his room.

The sheriff would not say if the images were legitimate, but he did say that his associates were attempting to determine how the images were made.

His investigators have sifted through a chilling array of clues in this case of the deadliest mass shooting in American history, attempting to determine the chain of events that caused a 64-year-old man to gun down so many people from his hotel rooms overlooking the Las Vegas Strip.

Paddock lived in a ranch-style home near the Arizona border, and the shots were fired from the 32nd floor of the hotel into crowds of people attending the country music festival, and hundreds of people were injured in addition to the 59 that were killed.

Only hours after the gunman opened fire at the festival that Sunday, country singer Jason Aldean turned to Instagram to check in with fans and ask them to pray for those involved.

Aldean had been in the middle of his set as the first shots were fired, and he and his band were quickly removed from the stage as the panicked crowd dispersed.

“Tonight has been beyond horrific,” he said, “and I still do not know what to say but wanted to let everyone know that me and my crew are safe.”

“My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved, and it hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone who was just coming out to enjoy what should have been a fun night,” the country singer said.

Aldean’s words echoed those of Ariana Grande in the aftermath of the Manchester, England bombing in May, which targeted fans as they left Grande’s concert. Twenty-two people were killed and more than 250 were injured in that attack.

The tragedy seems all the more senseless due to why the shooter would do such a thing because he fit no obvious profile of a person who would commit such a crime. He legally bought a handgun and two rifles over the past year, and the purchases cleared federal criminal screenings.

His brother said that he had nothing to do with any political or religious organization and was no white supremacist and he had known him for 57 years.

The survivors and the families and the friends of those who were killed are left in shock, grief and questions that may never be answered. The rest of us will always wonder why this happened and we all should do as Jason Aldean suggested and pray for the relatives of those killed or injured.

HHJ News