The gunman who opened fire on concertgoers from 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel was found dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, when a police SWAT team burst in, authorities said on Monday.
They said at least eight weapons, including a number of long rifles, were found in the room from where 64-year-old Stephen Paddock rained automatic fire into thousands of terrified people attending a country music concert across the street.
"We believe the individual killed himself prior to our entry," Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said.
Lombardo said at least 50 people were killed in what is now the largest mass shooting in modern US history, and more than 400 were treated for injuries at local hospitals. An off-duty police officer was among the dead.
Paddock's only previous known run-in with the law was a citation several years ago that was handled by the courts, he said.
"It's one of those really sad, tragic things that a man that's 64 years old that really had no other reason that we can find at least in his history here to go out and wound that many people," Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said on CNN.
McMahill said police officers at the concert were able to hear where the fire was coming from on the hotel's 32nd floor.
"Heavy fire, automatic fire at times. And so they were corralling all the people that were actually at the concert into behind a block wall.
"So a number of the other officers came out and went immediately to the Mandalay Bay and began to ascend up through the 32nd floor.
"What we know is once we arrived up there, we had isolated this individual to the two rooms. And our SWAT team went in and confronted the individual."
"He was shot, but I cannot tell you it was the police that shot him. He may have self-inflicted that gunshot wound. The details still emerging," McMahill said.
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