The Story of The Las Vegas Route 91 Shooting: What Led to the Most Terrifying Massacre of the Past decade.

A man lays on top of a woman as others flee the Route 91 Harvest country music festival grounds after a active shooter was reported at Mandalay Bay on Oct. 1, 2017 in Las Vegas.

Background on the shooter

Stephen Craig Paddock was a 64 year old retired accountant and real estate investor from Mesquite, Nevada. He had no criminal record and no diagnosed mental illness on file. He was known as a high stakes gambler who spent significant time in Las Vegas casinos, and he had a girlfriend named Marilou Danley. To this day investigators have never identified a clear motive for what he did. The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit studied his background extensively and released a report in 2019 concluding they could not determine why he carried out the attack, though they noted possible factors like a history of gambling losses, declining health, and a desire for infamy.

Las Vegas Shooter Stephen Paddock

In the year before the attack, Paddock purchased dozens of firearms, more than 30 in an eleven month span. He also acquired bump stock devices, legal accessories at the time that allowed semi automatic rifles to fire much faster, mimicking automatic weapons. He had scouted other locations too. Investigators later found he had booked hotel rooms overlooking the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago and the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas earlier in 2017, apparently considering them as possible attack sites before ultimately choosing the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

The lead up

On September 25, 2017, Paddock checked into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. He specifically requested a high floor suite with a view overlooking the festival grounds. Over the following days he moved dozens of suitcases into his room, filled with firearms, ammunition, and equipment. He set up small cameras in the hallway outside his door and even in the peephole, apparently to monitor for anyone approaching. He used a hammer to break out two windows in his suite to create firing positions facing the concert venue below.

The broke down windows of the Mandalay Bay Resort.

The night of October 1, 2017

The Route 91 Harvest Festival was a three day country music event held on a lot across the street from Mandalay Bay, drawing more than 22,000 attendees. On the final night, headliner Jason Aldean took the stage. At approximately 10:05 p.m., while Aldean was performing, Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay, roughly a quarter mile from the crowd.

He fired more than 1,000 rounds over about ten minutes using a combination of AR 15 style and AR 10 style rifles fitted with bump stocks. The gunfire was so rapid many in the crowd initially mistook it for fireworks or part of the show. Within moments panic spread through the audience as people realized they were being shot at. Concertgoers ran for exits, climbed and broke through fences, and took cover behind vehicles, bars, and each other. The chaos and crush of the fleeing crowd caused additional injuries beyond the gunfire itself.

Belongings are scattered and left behind at the site of the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

A hotel security guard named Jesus Campos was on the 32nd floor checking on an alarm and was shot and wounded by Paddock through his door before the attack on the crowd escalated. Campos radioed in the shooter's location, though there was confusion in the early minutes as some reports placed the gunman elsewhere.

Police officers arrived at the hotel and made their way up to the 31st and then 32nd floors. Paddock fired his last shots around 10:15 p.m. Officers systematically cleared the hallway, and just before midnight a SWAT team breached the door to his suite with an explosive charge. They found Paddock dead on the floor from what was determined to be a self inflicted gunshot wound. He had taken his own life before officers reached him.

Police take position outside the Mandalay Bay hotel, across the street from the concert venue. Police said the gunman fired on the crowd from the 32nd floor of the hotel.

Victims of a shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017. David Becker

People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after apparent gunfire was heard in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017.

The aftermath

The attack killed 60 people at the scene, with the toll later rising to 58 or 59 depending on the source and eventually settling around 60 direct fatalities, plus Paddock himself, making 61 total deaths including the shooter. More than 400 people were wounded by gunfire or shrapnel, and when counting injuries sustained while fleeing, the total injured climbed to roughly 850 to 870 people. It remains the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in modern United States history.

Nearby hospitals, especially Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, were overwhelmed with an influx of patients arriving by ambulance, police car, taxi, and private vehicle within minutes of the shooting starting. Ordinary bystanders and off duty medical workers helped carry the wounded and improvised tourniquets in the chaos.

With family members beside her, Carmen Alegria recounts her harrowing experience surviving and escaping the mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert

People gather around a victim outside the festival grounds.

In the following months, MGM Resorts, which owned Mandalay Bay, faced numerous lawsuits from victims and families. The company eventually reached a settlement of up to 800 million dollars to resolve claims. The tragedy also renewed a national debate over gun control in the United States, particularly around bump stocks, which had allowed Paddock's rifles to fire at a much higher rate. In the aftermath, the federal government moved to ban bump stocks under the Trump administration, though that ban was later struck down by the Supreme Court in 2024 on the grounds that the ATF had exceeded its authority in classifying them as machine gun parts.

A permanent memorial garden was later built near the festival site to honor the victims.

Las Vegas 2017 Massacre Memorial.

This is a heavy piece of history, and if reading about it stirs up difficult feelings, that's a very normal reaction. Let me know if you'd like me to go deeper into any specific part of this, like the police response, the victims, or the policy debate that followed.