The tactic echoed two earlier mass shootings, most notably Charles Whitman’s 1966 attack from atop the University of Texas Tower. In addition to Paddock’s choice of weaponry, mass shooting experts were struck by his decision to shoot at the concertgoers from high above, rather than walking through the crowd or firing from a nearby secluded spot on the ground. To Fox and others, the Las Vegas rampage represents a frightening turn in the nation’s struggle to stop mass shootings. “Anyone who has seen a war movie or an ‘Untouchables’ episode knows what it sounds like.” “It doesn’t take that much imagination to know what automatic gunfire sounds like,” Fox added. “I really can’t recall another case where one has been used,” said James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University criminologist who studies mass shooters and believes Paddock was armed with an automatic weapon when he killed at least 59 people and set off chaos that injured more than 500. “The ATF hasn’t evaluated them yet,” Las Vegas sheriff Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference Monday evening.īut video from the attack suggests Paddock may have used at least one fully automatic rifle, marking the first time such a weapon has been wielded by a public mass shooter in the United States, experts said. Investigators believe at least one of the guns functioned as if it were fully automatic and are now working to determine if he modified it or others to be capable of spitting out a high volume of fire just by holding down the trigger, people familiar with the case said. history was an AK-47 type rifle, with a stand to steady it for firing, according to people familiar with the case. One of the weapons Paddock apparently used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. With a cache of 17 mostly powerful firearms, Paddock, 64, smashed the windows of his 32nd floor hotel room and then, from high above the Las Vegas Strip, sprayed bullets down on 20,000 people listening to country music star Jason Aldean. Stephen Paddock’s lethal attack on a Las Vegas country music festival Sunday night was distinguished from most mass shootings by two features: the size of the arsenal he smuggled into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and the great height from which he shot.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |