Las Vegas police downgrade number of hurt following deadly shooting

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LAS VEGAS (NEWS 1130) – Police now say the total number of people injured in Sunday’s deadly attack has been downgraded to 489. Las Vegas Police say 317 of those have been discharged from the hospital.

58 people were killed when a gunman, who’s identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, opened fire on an outdoor country music festival around 9 p.m. Sunday.

Authorities say the Las Vegas shooter had 1,600 rounds of ammunition and several containers of an explosive commonly used in target shooting that totalled 50 pounds in his car.

Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters Wednesday that he didn’t know what Paddock was planning to do with the explosives.

Lombardo also said none of the cameras Paddock put up in the hotel room where he unleashed gunfire onto a concert crowd were recording. Authorities say he set up cameras in the peephole of the door and outside the room to watch for police closing in on him.

The first shots began at 10:05 p.m. Sunday and ended 10 minutes later. The LVPD say no suicide has been found, and investigators are still trying to identify a motive for the attack.

Police say  the shooter sprayed 200 rounds of gunfire into the hallway when a security guard approached his hotel room, but the guard was only hit in the leg. The wounded guard is said to have then helped a group of police officers clear out rooms on the 32nd floor of the hotel.

Paddock killed himself before police stormed his room at the Mandalay Bay. Lombardo says Paddock planned to survive and escape but didn’t say how.

Investigators describe Paddock as a high-stakes gambler and retired accountant.

Trump lauds Vegas victims, doctors: ‘Amazing people’

President Donald Trump is telling the people of Las Vegas that the nation stands with them to help bear the pain of the worst gun massacre in modern U.S. history.

Speaking at the city’s Metropolitan Police headquarters, Trump announced, “Our souls are stricken with grief for every American who lost” someone in Sunday night’s shooting. He added, “We will struggle through it together.”

His remarks came during a daylong visit with victims, families and first responders.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump met privately with victims of the Las Vegas shooting at a hospital Wednesday, praising them and the doctors who treated them.

The president said he’d met “some of the most amazing people” — and invited them to come visit him at the White House.

He commended the doctors who’d worked to save them for doing an “indescribable” job.

“It makes you very proud to be an American when you see the job that they’ve done,” he said.

Trump then headed to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police headquarters, where he met with police officers and dispatchers who’d responded to the shooting. He congratulated them “on a job well done.”

“You showed the world and the world is watching,” he told them, “and you showed what professionalism is all about.”

Republicans not considering gun control measures

Republicans who control Congress have made clear they have no intention of taking up gun control measures, such as tightening restrictions on semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, in the shooting’s aftermath.

Trump, in a 2000 book, said that he supported a prohibition on assault weapons and a “slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.” He also said in 2013 that he supported “background checks to weed out the sickos.”

But Trump ran his campaign with a strong pro-Second Amendment message and the backing of the National Rifle Association.

“Gun and magazine bans are a total failure,” read one campaign policy paper. “Opponents of gun rights try to come up with scary sounding phrases like ‘assault weapons,’ ‘military-style weapons’ and ‘high capacity magazines’ to confuse people. What they’re really talking about are popular semi-automatic rifles and standard magazines that are owned by tens of millions of Americans.”

On Tuesday, Trump appeared somewhat open to having a debate on guns, but not anytime soon.

“At some point, perhaps, that will come,” he told reporters. “But that’s not for now.”

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