On the Route 91 Harvest Festival hosted in Las Vegas Strip on October first, a shooter fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel at 10:08 p.m. There were a total of 58 deaths and at least 527 injured during the attack. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police identified the gunman as 64-year old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada. The suspect was found dead in his hotel room after committing suicide. The performance of Jason Aldean in Las Vegas Strip was interrupted for what will become the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

After checking Paddock’s hotel room police found at least 23 firearms, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. In addition to the weapons at the hotel, the police retrieved 19 firearms, as well as explosives and several thousand rounds of ammunition from Paddock’s house. The suspect fired through his hotel room door at security guards, striking one in the leg. SWAT officers went in after the officer was hurt.

The motive behind the attack is still unknown and the investigation of the suspect still continues. Before the shooting Paddock had no criminal record and there is no indication of him being associated with any radical movement or have strong religious affiliations.

The Islamic State claimed on October second that the gunman was a soldier of theirs, but the group did not provide any evidence of this claim. The president of the JSA Club, Sade Neri, 10, talks about the unfairness of the situation and how this people did not deserved what happened regardless of their opinions or beliefs.

“No matter what your opinions are you don’t deserve to be killed,” Neri said. “All this people were innocent they were just trying to enjoy their weekend and this person just had to come and ruin their lives.”

The shooting also had an impact on police trainings. It has led police departments to retrain patrol officers to be prepared to confront a gunman if the killing was still occurring instead of waiting for a SWAT team. Mr. Steve Guthrie, Law enforcement teacher talks about the training the officer goes through, in order to help in this situations.

“Las Vegas even trained for that; they trained for a sniper in a high elevation which it is always the advantage for a bad person, to have as the highest elevation, not to be at the lowest, shooting up,” Guthrie said. “So they kind of trained but not like this, they were not expecting such of a prepared individual, such as Paddock was.”

Also, students like Valeria Martinez,12, who have family members and friends in Las Vegas feels like it was a traumatic experience for those who were involved and how the shooting has changed the perception the locals have of the city.

“I feel like it is very traumatic for the people that were involved,” Martinez said. “It’s very sad what happened for the reason that Vegas was a place in which every single day the streets were filled with people and now nobody will come out because they are afraid of what is gonna happen.”

If you will like to help, there are several ways you can do it. Steve Sisolak, Chair of the Clark County Commissioner, has set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the victims and their families. In the first three days it raised more than nine million dollars. Also, officials in Las Vegas stated there was an overwhelming turnout for blood donations; there were donors who waited more than six hours in line.

The California Victim Compensation Board is working to assist California residents with medical bills, counseling, burial/funerals expenses and income loss. Victims can call 1-800-777-9229 or visit the official website (link below) and if you live in the Las Vegas area, you can volunteer transportation and other help to victims through the Facebook page below.

Those looking for information about loved ones still missing in the Las Vegas area can call 1-800-536-9488.

GoFundMe Page: https://www.gofundme.com/dr2ks2-las-vegas-victims-fund

Victims website: http://victims.ca.gov/lasvegas/

Volunteer Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/the-violent-incident-in-las-vegas-nevada-oct01-2017/home/