TV news is reporting the shooter is named Stephen Paddock.
Marilou Danley has been referred to as the shooter’s companion in some reports, roommate in others, and “someone who knows him” in others, so I figured he might be in the photos on her Facebook page. Her account was shut down while I was looking through it - not sure if that was done by Facebook or her. I was able to use the back button to get this photo though.
Out of about 30 photos there weren’t any others of her with a male companion so he could possibly be the shooter. Or he could be a totally unrelated random person in a Facebook photo.
Maybe. My first assumption is that there’s no chance that anyone firing an assault rifle at full auto at that range would be able to hit anything, but shooting into a packed crowd? Maybe.
H’m. I’ll certainly defer to experience, but it certainly sounded like full-auto fire to me, from two different weapons. One larger caliber (rather like an M-60 to my ears), one smaller.
It’s possible for a civilian to own a machine gun, but they’re heavily restricted. There are legal hoops to jump through, a $200 tax stamp, and they banned the sale and importation of new ones in 1986. With the supply restricted, the prices are very high, typically tens of thousands of dollars for a quality assault rifle or machine gun.
They’re now saying more than 50 dead.
Paddock had multiple weapons in his apt. They found his companion and his vehicles.
Jesus.
The new numbers are 50 dead and over 200 injured. It was so awful to wake up to this news and Bo, I’m glad to see you’re okay. You were the first person I thought of when I heard about this today.
Danley has been identified as his wife.
Stating the obvious, whoever did this is a sick fuck. Why can’t people who are down on life just take themselves out and leave everybody else alone? God, do we need some serious overhaul of mental health in this country.
That’s him then.
The woman they’re looking for has been located, but they’re using a really weird construction to refer to it: “we are confident we have located the female person of interest.” I wonder if she’s still alive?
Bo and other Vegas Dopers, this is shattering, I am so sorry. The new numbers make it the deadliest mass shooting ever in the US.
LV Metro reports they killed Paddock.
What on earth does that mean?
Yeah. The police report no interaction with him. It will be interesting to hear what his wife has to say, if she is still alive.
Fuckwit commentator on CNN has decided a cool way to refer to the crowd is “biomass”.
Apparently, the police were aware of him
Well, they have some real news to report on so don’t have to make stuff up I guess.
Very sad news indeed.
Well, as a placeholder post until more and better info becomes available…I’ll say that I agree with you in principle, with the following caveats:
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We don’t yet know what the motivation behind the shooting is. I’m favoring “nutjob,” but we really can’t rule out political or religious motivations just yet. As such, better mental health care isn’t going to address those issues.
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Healthcare of any kind only works when people avail themselves to it. Alcoholics and other addicts to various substances often go years, decades perhaps, without admitting that they have a problem, or otherwise seeking help for it.
If a person is publicly exhibiting some form of mental instability, and friends/family intervene on that person’s behalf, then perhaps they can be helped, on an evaluated/involuntary basis.
If they otherwise look and act perfectly normal before climbing the clock tower with a rifle…