Police Found Shooter’s Room Due To Smoke Alarms From Gunfire, Photos Released From Inside Room

The Washington Post reports:

It wasn’t the hundreds of muzzle flashes that exploded from the shooter’s rifles that gave away his position. Nor was it the panicked 911 calls from people reporting the rhythmic thundering of gunfire. It was the smoke.

As the gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, fired round after round, gun smoke filled his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, said Randy Sutton, a retired lieutenant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, citing police sources.

The SWAT team used the alarm triggered by the smoke to zero in on Paddock’s position in about 20 minutes — not nearly enough time for a floor-by-floor search of the hotel, which has 3,309 rooms and a 135,000-square-foot casino.

The New York Daily News reports:



The Las Vegas hotel room of gunman Stephen Paddock, who killed 59 people and wounded more than 500 at a country music concert, was littered with assault rifles and bullet shells, photos of the room show.

A Boston 25 News reporter tweeted a photo of Paddock’s room that shows a hammer along with dozens of casings on the floor and a bullet magazine. Among the casings is an assault rifle fixed with a scope and bipod.

A second photo showed another long assault rifle with a long magazine and handle at the front of the stock. Police believe Paddock used a hammer to bust a window in his Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino hotel room.