Mesa police officer’s face grazed by bullet in Las Vegas concert shooting
Oct 2, 2017, 8:35 AM | Updated: 6:25 pm
Las Vegas police gather following a deadly shooter at a music festival Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Las Vegas. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
(Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
PHOENIX — A Mesa police officer’s face was grazed by a bullet late Sunday night when a gunman opened fire on an outdoor country music concert in Las Vegas.
The Mesa Police Department said the officer was recovering. The officer’s name was not released.
Three more off-duty Mesa police officers and a Mesa police staff member were also at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
Arizona Department of Public Safety Director Col. Frank Milstead told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Bruce St. James and Pamela Hughes that one of his troopers who attended the concert had shrapnel wounds in his hand and backside.
The trooper’s name was not released.
A DPS employee also suffered shrapnel wounds to her hand.
At least 58 people were killed and at least 510 more were injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
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The suspect has been identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada. He had opened fire on 22,000 concertgoers from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino.
A Las Vegas Police SWAT team said Paddock was found dead in the room. NBC News reported that at least 10 weapons were found in the room.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said they believe this was a “lone wolf” attack. The FBI was assisting the investigation.
A Homeland Security official said there was no specific “credible threat” to other public venues in the U.S.
Concertgoers reported seeing muzzle flashes from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino across Las Vegas Boulevard from the Route 91 country music festival and the sound of what they described as automatic gunfire.
Kodiak Yazzie, 36, said the music stopped temporarily when the first shots began and the tune even started up again before the second round of pops sent the performers ducking for cover and fleeing the stage.
“It was the craziest stuff I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Yazzie said. “You could hear that the noise was coming from west of us, from Mandalay Bay.
“You could see a flash-flash-flash-flash.”
President Donald Trump said he planned to visit the city on Wednesday and called the shooting “an act of pure evil.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
