This post has been updated.
Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock killed at least 58 people on Sunday from the windows of a 32nd-floor hotel room overlooking a country-must festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here’s what we know about the weapons he used, based on breaking news reports from The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post, and other media outlets:
- Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Assistant (LVMPD) Sheriff Todd R. Fasulo stated that police found 23 guns in Paddock’s hotel room. Earlier, unnamed sources stated there were “at least 20” rifles in the room, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
- Two of them were set up on tripods, along with scopes, in front of the room’s windows, according to an unnamed official.
- According Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the LVMPD, Paddock brought ten suitcases into his hotel room over a period of time.
- Paddock used a hammer to smash the windows before he started shooting.
- The guns appear to have been purchased legally. Nevada has lax gun laws, allowing people to purchase assault rifles, high-caliber weapons, and large capacity magazines.
- Lombardo described the weapons as ranging from .223 and .308 caliber. Among the weapons found were AR-15-style assault rifles, and at least one an AK-47 type rifle.
- Police also found 19 firearms, several thousand rounds of ammunition, and explosives at Paddock’s home in Mesquite, Nevada.
- It’s not clear which specific weapon or weapons Paddock used to conduct the attack. But analysis of the firing patterns has led experts to speculate that Paddock used a modified a semi-automatic weapon, customized to shoot continuously as a fully-automatic weapon would.