Country music star Jason Aldean is speaking out for the first time after a gunman opened fire during his concert on Sunday in Las Vegas where at least 59 people died and another 527 were injured.
Aldean was in the middle of performing on stage at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire on the 22,000 people in the crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
The father-of-two released a statement on social media asking the nation to come together and heal.
‘Over the last 24 hrs I have gone through lots of emotions. Scared, Anger, Heartache, Compassion and many others,’ he wrote.
Country music star Jason Aldean is speaking out for the first time after a gunman opened fire during his concert on Sunday in Las Vegas where at least 59 people died and another 527 were injured
Aldean was in the middle of performing on stage at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when Stephen Paddock, 64, opened fire on the 22,000 people in the crowd (above) from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
‘I truely (sic) dont (sic) understand why a person would want to take the life of another. Something has changed in this country and in this world lately that is scary to see.
‘This world is becoming the kind of place i (sic) am afraid to raise my children in. At the end of the day we arent (sic) Democrats or Republicans, Whites or Blacks, Men or Women.
‘We are all humans and we are all Americans and its time to start acting like it and stand together as ONE! That is the only way we will ever get this Country to be better than it has ever been, but we have a long way to go and we have to start now.
‘My heart aches for the Victims and their families of this Senseless act. I am so sorry for the hurt and pain everyone is feeling right now and there are no words i (sic) can say to to take that pain away.
The father-of-two released a statement on social media asking the nation to come together and heal.
‘Just know u all are in my heart and my prayers as we all go through this together. Time to come together and stop the hate! #stopthehate #prayforlasvegas’.
Authorities are still investigating what caused Paddock to open fire on concertgoers causing the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
It took police 72 minutes to zero in on Paddock’s hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across the street from the festival.
They say he had cameras set up in the hallway so he would know when authorities arrived.
Paddock continued to fight even as police breached his room – firing through the front door at officers. But by the time the SWAT team finally made it into the room, Paddock had killed himself.
In the statement (above), he wrote: ‘My heart aches for the Victims and their families of this Senseless act. I am so sorry for the hurt and pain everyone is feeling right now and there are no words i (sic) can say to to take that pain away.’
Paddock lived in 27 residences in Nevada, Florida and Texas as an adult, but other than that he had apparently lived a quiet and unremarkable life.
The retired accountant had worked as an internal auditor at Lockheed Martin for three years in the late 1980s, and was a manager and investor in apartment complexes located in Mesquite, Texas and California, which made him millions, his brother said, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
Local police said they had no run-ins with the man, not even traffic violations, and his brother described him as ‘just a guy who lived in Mesquite who drove down and gambled in Las Vegas and… liked burritos’.
And now photos have emerged of two of the 23 rifles found inside Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s hotel room, which he used to rain down death on a crowd of 22,000 attending a music festival on Sunday.
The startling pictures, obtained by Boston 25, show two semi-automatic AR-15-style assault rifles.