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INVESTIGATORS BELIEVE A note found in the Las Vegas gunman’s hotel room contained a series of numbers that helped him calculate more precise shots, a law enforcement official said.
Vice President Mike Pence appeared at a prayer service in Las Vegas yesterday to mourn the victims of last weekend’s concert shooting and to praise those who risked their lives to save others.
Federal officials also began hauling away thousands of personal items left behind in the concert venue after Stephen Paddock unleashed a fury of gunfire from his Mandalay Bay hotel room, killing 58 people and injuring nearly 500.
The investigation
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press yesterday that the numbers found on a note located on a nightstand included the distance between the high-rise hotel room that Paddock was using as a perch and the concert below.
The official wasn’t authorised to discuss the details of the ongoing investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
In an interview set to air later today, Officer David Newton of the Las Vegas Police Department’s K-9 unit, told CBS’ 60 Minutes he noticed Paddock’s note “on the nightstand near his shooting platform”.
“I could see on it he had written the distance, the elevation he was on, the drop of what his bullet was going to be for the crowd. So he had that written down and figured out so he would know where to shoot to hit his targets from there,” he said.
Newton added that forcing entry into the room with an explosive before finding Paddock’s body and an arsenal of weapons was like something “out of a movie”.
It was “very eerie,” he said.
Investigators are still working to determine why Paddock committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
On Friday, FBI agents announced plans to put up billboards throughout Las Vegas to ask people with credible information to call with tips. The number is 800-CALL-FBI.
“We still do not have a clear motive or reason why,” Undersheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told reporters Friday, adding that law enforcement was continuing to search for answers with “great tenacity”.
Forever etched in our hearts
Vice President Mike Pence told mourners at a prayer service in Las Vegas that the memory of the victims of last weekend’s shooting massacre will “forever be etched into the hearts of the American people.”
“It was a tragedy of unimaginable proportions,” Pence said as he addressed nearly 300 people at Las Vegas City Hall.
The vice president traveled to Vegas yesterday to attend a ceremony honoring the 58 victims. He says amid the depths of horror, Americans have found hope in those who risked their lives to help save others after the shooting.
After he spoke, 58 doves were released on the steps of City Hall to commemorate each victim. Someone shouted, “God bless America” as the doves disappeared into the distance.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman told the audience that the focus needs to remain on the victims, not “that horrific senseless animal”.
“He is my hero”
One of the first memorials services for victims of the Las Vegas shooting massacre was held yesterday in Bakersfield, California, for Jack Beaton, who died shielding his wife from gunfire.
His wife, Laurie, recalled that he yelled at her to get on the ground, put his body on top of hers for protection and told her he loved her before going limp.
“I knew every day that he would protect me and take care of me and love me unconditionally, and what he did is no surprise to me,” she said. “He is my hero.”
Jack Beaton was remembered as a fun-loving friend, a hard-working roofer by trade, a generous and kind-hearted neighbor, and, above all, a devoted husband and father to two children.
“Our people, they didn’t run”
Members of a private security firm that manned last weekend’s concert and stayed in the venue to help other people flee are starting to return to work .
“Our people, they didn’t run,” said supervisor Cheryl Metzler.
The Las Vegas branch of Contemporary Services Corporation lifted concertgoers over barriers and hid them behind pillars as gunfire rang out from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel casino. Many are traumatized and mourning the loss of a co-worker, 21-year-old Erick Silva, who was among the 58 people killed. Two other guards were wounded.
Darla Christensen was checking concertgoers’ bags and boots for alcohol and contraband and inspecting wristbands when gunfire erupted. She grabbed other guards and patrons and pushed them toward a side gate.
On Friday, she put on her uniform to work a UFC weigh-in, her first event since the shooting. “Even just going, even just getting dressed, was hard,” she said. “It was really tough.”
With reporting from AFP
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Irish radio had a left wing nut from the US on this morning discussing how Trump might nuke a country he does not like. She claimed he would be by himself at certain times and could launch before anybody notices….I mean come on? It would be funny if they weren’t so serious. Are people this stupid?
@John Reese: Are people that stupid? Yep .. Sure millions voted for a Billionaire they think will look out for the little man…stupid
A bully that ruined businesses on many Joe Soaps and they think he will help them? It’ll be worse than ever.
I dont which is better. The fact that Trump won against all odds, or that liberals now have to fulfill their promise to move to Canada
They’re the same fools who say they’ll take in immigrants/refugees but would run if they had to. Clowns are all talk so best to just ignore them!
I disagree, Paul. Now is the best time to confront and mock the far left. They are like a wounded animal, lashing out in anticipation of their imminent demise. They would love for us to ignore them. Well they may get used to it. The tables have turned for the foreseeable future.
@Reagan Smash: So, You think Trump is better , better than what ? You think you’ve won because the Liberals are defeated ? Yes , I agree things needed to change ,unfettered immigration is a mistake , Sweden tells us that . I agree that the elites do need a “realignment” but at what price ? It seems your hatred for the “liberal agenda” permits you to follow ( billionaire , elite , egomaniac) who got elected by lying to white middle-aged men about bringing back industries that will never return to the US . Heavy industry is not going back , ever . Some tech companies will go back if he reduces the Corp tax but they won’t be going to Flint Michigan or Ohio .So have your anti-liberal hero ,he who is openly backed by the KKK, a man that moves on women like a bitch even though he thinks the Latins are the rapists , a moan who mimic people with disabilities ,a man who admires Putin (now the world’s second most dangerous man ), a man who will expose the world to an expansionist Russia by dismantling Nato. A man that will drive Islamic moderates to extremism . A man who with real intellectual limitations , a man who runs beauty pageants and fancies his own daughter. Well, have at it , good luck with your new leader . Hopefully , you will get to move to the US and fill the void left by the fleeing celebrities
And still tensing he was more appealing to Americans than Hillary Clinton, what does that make her?
Amen – well said
He essentially has 12 months to get stuff done, if not midterm elections will see a shift in the Senate
The end of the Clinton dynasty and watching her self entitled supporters cry through the election night was something I’ll always cherish and hold close to my heart. They were so, so sure they had it in the bag, and along come those nasty working class voters to have their say too. That was a wake up call if ver I saw one. You don’t own the presidency, now ain’t that something.
@Mr Snuffleupagus:
When George W won the presidency, I found it to be one of the most depressing political chapters of all. I couldn’t watch or listen to him throughout his presidency and if and when he came on the radio or TV I’d have to immediately reach for the dial and turn him off. The exact same thing would have happened for me if Clinton had won. What a horrid yoke she is.
At least with Trump there might be some entertainment value. I’ll wait a few weeks before the hyperbole calms down.
The media. A bunch of stupid losers trying to console themselves with name calling.
Suck it up liberal lefties everywhere! Trump won !!
Please john. Trump won you need to understand that is now happening in the US and tat the changes will be on the card tables.
Bet Newsweek are feeling fools now for their business decision on having their President Clinton shipped, ready to sell.
A national recall went out Wednesday for the special “Madame President” issue of Newsweek that was prematurely shipped to stores and newsstands across the country.
Now have to do trump.
For the way he was treated by mainstream media you have to give it to Trump for his tenacity, and sheer doggedness, for his refusing to be bullied, he is like a persistent terrier at the heels of the establishment, refusing to let go, he has upset the status quo and that can only be a good thing, what a year 2016 turned out to be full of surprises, as Burke so eloquently put it last night now it’s our turn to drain the bog!!
@Kate Flaherty: In Ireland, it`s more like draining the cesspool .
Isn’t it an eyeopener to see just how much the lefty liberal crowd only like “democracy” when it puts them on the winning side. This is the same bunch that want you to “shut-up” and for you not to be able criticize their demand for things like open borders, mass migration, abortion on demand etc. This bunch is full of bigots, fascist, feminazis and misandrists! The whining and the negativity from the majority of the media in relation to DT becoming the next US President is astounding! Our 4th estate is and has been letting us down for years as it has been taken over by lefty liberal agenda leaning moguls! They really need to get over themselves and for the benefit of the young in this country start being more positive about what life is and for what the future holds.
For the past day I heard from Twitter, Facebook, Newspapers, TV shows and more that Trump is , “Racist”, “sexist” “next Hitler” for the Thousand time . Talk about an Overreaction.
Trumps election is the equivalent of Kerry people voting for the Healey Raes, ie we’ll show those fcukkers in Dublin/Washington
Is it just me, or does his eldest son look also like the character in americian psycho?
The press is bias but that bull sells?
Well when 75% of the American electorate didn’t vote for him it seems they know exactly who their market is
@Dave O Keeffe: They were and are bias towards Clinton for her to win, he is an arrogant big mouth git but he is the lesser of 2 evils. The things reported about Hillary and what she did to protect Bill over the years showed to me that she was in my view a sociopath. The press were for Hillary and many supported her because she was a woman and that was where they left it. They never really investigated the dark side of her and the fact is that side would turn you to stone. 9 out of the 10 top weapon manufacturers supported her as did the Saudis… The killing of the rape victims pets did me and leaving them on their doorsteps only proved to me that normal women don’t do that to rape victims, or do they?
Anyway, Trump wouldn’t have won if Hillary didn’t do what she did to Sanders, the desire for power can be self destructive?
@Dave O Keeffe: How did he win then, to condemn him is to condemn those who voted for him and he got the votes because he was not Hillary, is that talked about???
This presentation of media bias has mostly tame examples. I think it strawmans the perspective that the media paints Trump and his supporters as morally bankrupt bigots. There’s no essential retrospective on what the media did during the campaign.
As if to say “ah yeah… there was some bias, but it mostly wasn’t anything phenomenal. Just typical stuff. Maybe some fringe media were very biased against Trump, that’s all.”
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