On the evening of Oct. 1, a mass shooting took place in Paradise, Nevada at the Route 91 Harvest festival.  The shooter was a sixty-four-year-old man named Stephen Paddock who shot down on the crowd from the thirty-second floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, across the way.  He shot on the crowd for 9-11 minutes, killing 58 people and wounding over 500.  Once the police located and breached his room, they found Paddock had already died from a self-afflicted gun wound.

He acted alone, but his motives for the shooting are still uncertain and officials do not know if it was a terrorist attack or not.  The only  criminal records he had were a minor traffic citation taken care of in court and a lawsuit with a casino in 2014 from falling there.  He had no psychological problems; however, the police did find that Paddock had been prescribed and purchased anti-depressants in June.  Most doctors agree it is unlikely the drugs were the root cause of the killing spree, but they are known to have severe side effects in some cases.

Paddock’s family is also trying to figure out what drove him to do this.  His brother, Eric Paddock, said, “This is a horror, just a horror story in every possible way.  It’s the bad twist at the end of a good movie.”  Stephen Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, recently came back from a trip to the Philippines where she was visiting family. “I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together with him,” said Danley.  The police are still investigating.