Updated 4.30pm
POLICE IN THE US have named the Las Vegas shooter as 64-year-old retired accountant Stephen Paddock.
Correcting earlier reports, police now say he shot and killed himself after launching an attack on a country music festival in the city.
“We believe the individual killed himself prior to our entry,” Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said at 2pm Irish time (6am local time).
At least 50 people were killed and more than 400 injured when Paddock opened fire from a hotel room overlooking the open-air concert.
It is the deadliest mass shooting in the modern history of the United States. About 22,000 people attended the Route 91 Harvest festival.
Giving an update this afternoon, Lombardo told reporters that there were “in excess of 10 rifles” found in his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
Paddock was a local resident, living in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada (which is over an hour’s drive from Vegas).
Police gave his date of birth as 9 April 1953.
His brother, Eric Paddock, described him as “a guy who lived in a house in Mesquite who gambled in Las Vegas… and eats burritos”.
Visibly shocked, he struggled to find words but said he wasn’t “an avid gun guy”.
“The fact that he had those kind of weapons is just … where the hell did he get automatic weapons? He has no military background or anything like that,” he told reporters outside his Orlando home.
“We are shocked, horrified, completely dumbfounded about this. We have nothing to say. There’s just nothing to say.”
“The fact that my brother did this… there’s nothing… we don’t understand,” he added, noting they aren’t that close and live on opposite sides of the country.
I couldn’t be more dumbfounded. I hope someone figures it out because we’d like to know.
Stephen’s Paddock’s last text to his brother said, “How’s Mom? Did you get power?”, following the hurricane in Florida. He also told reporters that he “sends his Mom cookies” and also a walker when she had trouble getting about, adding that he knew of no reason why he would be angry.
No religious affiliation. No political affiliation. He just hung out.
“He didn’t have active employment. He had a place in Melbourne… His life is an open book. It’s all in the public record. He went to college. He had a job.”
Heavily armed police have been searching the Mesquite, Nevada retirement-community home of Stephen Paddock.
In an update this afternoon, local police said they had found guns and ammunition at the address, but added any further details of that search would be provided by the lead investigators from Las Vegas police.
A local officer who briefed media said there was “nothing out of the ordinary” about the home, and described it as a “regular neighbourhood”.
A number of neighbours were evacuated from their homes in advance of the planned search, he said.
Paddock had never come to the attention of police in the area for any reason, the officer told reporters.
“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Lombardo said earlier today while answering questions from journalists.
Investigators say they are also confident they have spoken to a woman they were looking for in relation to the mass shooting. Marilou Danley – who Eric Paddock confirmed as his brother’s girlfriend – was located out of the country.
“She was not with him when he checked in,” Lombardo said.
We have discovered that he was utilising some of her identification. We have had a conversation with her and we believe her, at this time, not to be involved but obviously that investigation will continue.
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