The dreaded Islamic terror group, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the mass shooting in Las Vegas which led to the death of 58 people with more than 515 were wounded. ISIS said the attacker had converted to Islam a few months ago but US officials say there is no evidence that Paddock was linked to ISIS.
On Sunday evening, just after 10 p.m. Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, a resident of nearby Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire on a country music festival taking place at Las Vegas Village from a room across the street in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. ISIS later said Paddock was a “soldier of the Islamic State” who “converted to Islam a few months ago”.
“The Las Vegas attack was carried out by a soldier of the Islamic State and he carried it out in response to calls to target states of the coalition,” ISIS’ news agency Amaq said in reference to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group in the Middle East.
“The Las Vegas attacker converted to Islam a few months ago,” Amaq added.
But the claim was swiftly shot down by US officials. Two senior U.S. officals said shortly after ISIS’s statement that there is no evidence Paddock was linked to ISIS or any international militant group for that matter. One of the two U.S. officials discounted Islamic State’s claim of responsibility and said there was reason to believe that the shooter had a history of psychological problems. In addition, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said investigations are still ongoing and police have not yet determined a motive.
Paddock’s family spoke with Dailymail and they said he had no political or religious affiliation.
The shooter’s brother, Eric Paddock said from his home in Orlando, Florida: “He was just a guy. Something happened, he snapped or something. He’s my brother, we don’t have a very close relationship but we talk occasionally. There’s no rhyme or reason here, it makes no sense.”
He continued: “He has no political affiliation, no religious affiliation, as far as we know. This wasn’t a terror attack”.
Paddock lived just 90 minutes outside Las Vegas in the city of Mesquite, with 62-year-old Marilou Danley, an Australian citizen believed to be of Indonesian descent. Speaking of his brother’s female companion, Eric Paddock said he believes she had nothing to do with the shooting.
He said: “She has nothing to do with this, at least from my perspective.”
Police said in a press conference early Monday that that they discovered in “excess of 10 rifles” in the room, and that Paddock’s death was the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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