Two country singers on the bill at the Route 91 Harvest Festival have described a scene of terror that felt like a “war zone” as a shooter in a Las Vegas hotel rained gunfire down on thousands of music fans.
Police said at least 59 people died and at least 527 people were injured during the shooting Sunday. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Country singer Tyler Reeve says he was backstage when a volley of shots rang out Sunday night during a performance by Jason Aldean. He and other singers took cover in a trailer while bullets struck tour buses, equipment cases and the stage.
SWAT teams using explosives stormed the gunman’s hotel room in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino and found he had killed himself, authorities said. The attacker, Stephen Craig Paddock, a 64-year-old retiree from Mesquite, Nevada, had 16 rifles and a handgun, they said.
“I don’t think many people realized right away what it was, but right when I heard it, I grabbed my buddy that was next to me and started running toward a production trailer,” Reeve told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday from Las Vegas.