A gunman on a high floor of a Las Vegas hotel rained a rapid-fire barrage on an outdoor concert festival on Sunday night, leaving at least 59 people dead, injuring 527 others, and sending thousands of terrified survivors fleeing for cover, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.
Online video of the attack near the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino showed the singer Jason Aldean’s performance at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, a three-day country music event, being interrupted by the sound of gunfire. The music stopped, and as victims fell bleeding, concertgoers screamed, ducked for cover, or ran. “Get down,” one shouted. “Stay down,” screamed another.
• The police found the gunman, whom they identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, dead in his room at the hotel. Investigators were still combing through Mr. Paddock’s background and searching his home on Monday.
• The Islamic State claimed that Mr. Paddock was one of its soldiers, but did not provide any evidence of its claim. The F.B.I. said there was no evidence so far that Mr. Paddock had ties to any international terrorist organization, and relatives said he had not displayed strong political or ideological beliefs in their interactions with him.
• Speaking at the White House, President Trump condemned the shooting as an “act of pure evil” and called for the country to come together, saying, “Our unity cannot be shattered by evil, our bonds cannot be broken by violence.”
The surge of patients at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, within walking distance of the concert, was almost unthinkable. In the first hours, 90 patients arrived at the Level Two trauma center, and by noon on Monday, the total was 180.
Of those, 124 “met the criteria for trauma activation,” said Dr. Jeff Murawsky, the hospital’s chief medical officer. They included patients with single and multiple gunshot wounds to the head, face, chest, body, arms and, in one case, a finger.
The less severely injured included those who fell or were pushed as they ran. By Monday afternoon, 16 patients had died, some on arrival and others after being treated.
Patients were sorted on arrival in the lobby of the emergency room using a scale of one — most critical — to five, a system used daily that Dr. Murawsky said helped in the emergency. A separate area at Sunrise was created for those whom the doctors deemed “unsalvageable.” Still, Dr. Murawsky said, “our trauma surgeons don’t feel like we were ever in a situation where we weren’t able to do our best.”
