On Monday, the world was rocked by the news of a shooting in Las Vegas that has, at the time of writing, left 59 people dead (including the perpetrator), and a further 530 injured. However it has now emerged that the shooter’s original plans may have been different, with police believing he may have planned to attack patrons of an earlier, larger music festival.
At around 10pm local time Sunday night, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock began to open fire on attendees of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas. The shooter had earlier rented two rooms on the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel and casino, which overlooked the country music festival, firing on civilians from this location.
As The Daily Beast reports, police are currently investigating leads which indicate that the shooter may have initially planned to attack a larger music festival, which was held a week earlier.
A source told The Daily Beast that Stephen Paddock had reportedly booked multiple accomodations at the Ogden, a nearby 21-storey luxury tower that overlooks the grounds on which the Life Is Beautiful festival had taken place on from September 22nd to 24th.
The Life Is Beautiful festival this year featured the likes of Blink-182, Muse, Gorillaz, Lorde, and Aussie acts such as Hayden James and Middle Kids. While attendance figures for this year’s festival are unconfirmed, the 2016 festival drew over 137,000 music fans to the grounds over three days, a far greater number than the 22,000 reported to have attended the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival this year.
A spokesperson for the Ogden hotel stated that they are “not in a position to confirm or deny anything about Mr. Paddock’s dealings.”
At this stage, Las Vegas police are looking into this theory, with Life Is Beautiful organiser Justin Weniger telling NBC News “that investigation is ongoing” when asked about the news.
