Live Blog: Latest Updates on Mass Shooting

Image: Las Vegas police sweep through a convention center area Image: Las Vegas police sweep through a convention center area

Las Vegas police sweep through a convention center area during a lockdown on Oct. 2, 2017, at the Tropicana Las Vegas following an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Strip. Chase Stevens / Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP

Suspect Stephen Paddock spent “tens of thousands of dollars” gambling in Las Vegas casinos in recent weeks, law enforcement officials tell NBC News. It’s unclear if he was winning or losing money off these large transactions, or if the gambling had any connection to the shooting.

One of the suspect’s brothers, Eric Paddock, told NBC News earlier today that the suspect regularly spent time gambling and visiting the casinos in Las Vegas, some 80 miles away from Mesquite, Nevada, where the 64-year-old suspect was retired. 

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, will respond to the Las Vegas massacre with remarks delivered outside the U.S. Capitol Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Americans for Responsible Solutions said. 

The couple founded the organization aimed at encouraging lawmakers to pursue “commonsense” gun control after Giffords narrowly survived a shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six of her constituents and wounded 12 others. In a statement issued Monday, Giffords called the Las Vegas shooting “a grave tragedy for our nation.” 

“I know this feeling of heartbreak and horror too well. The massacre in Las Vegas is a grave tragedy for our nation. This must stop — we must stop this,” Giffords said, adding that she is praying for victims and first responders. 

“But,” she added, “I am praying for my former colleagues, too. I am praying they find the courage it will take to make progress on the challenging issue of gun violence.”

Giffords and Kelly were originally scheduled to attend gun violence-related campaign events Monday for Virginia’s Democratic candidate for governor, Ralph Northam. 

Speaking to the nation from the White House, the president praised the quick action of law enforcement officers and first responders, which he said saved many lives. Trump also said that he would visit Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Friends Sarah Haas and Sydney Sievers were at the Route 91 Harvest festival on Sunday night when a shooter on the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel opened fire.

“We’re in VIP having the best time of our life, my best friend, my mom and my grandma. We hear a whole bunch of shooting, we get down on that floor,” Sievers told NBC News. “You could hear the gunshots. You understood what it was. You couldn’t miss it.”

Haas said strangers pulled them out of the concert area and through a parking lot. After that, they met up with a group of strangers who stuck together and helped calm each other down. Haas and Sievers eventually took shelter in a stranger’s hotel room for the night.

“It was the scariest time of my life. I thought it was over. I really did,” Sievers said. “I was more scared about my mom, not knowing where she was. But I knew we would make it. We had so much adrenaline, we had to. We had no choice. We can’t stay behind.”

Haas said she was still struggling to process the event.

 “You think you’re going there to have a fun time to, you know, listen to music, hang out with friends,” she said. “You never expect anything like this to happen and then it did.”

Some of Sunday’s performers at the Route 91 Country Music Festival in Las Vegas were still at or near the event as shots rang out on Sunday night. Below are a few of their reactions.

Jason Aldean, who was mid-performance when the shooting began, called the experience “beyond horrific” on Instagram.

The worst mass shooting in modern American history was met with immediate calls for action on gun control Monday from some Democratic lawmakers.

While most of their colleagues on both sides of the aisle stuck to sending condolences to victims and their families, Connecticut’s senators expressed outrage that Congress has not done more to restrict access to deadly firearms five years after the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

“Nowhere but America do horrific large-scale mass shootings happen with this degree of regularity,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in a statement. “This must stop.” 

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House Speaker Paul Ryan in a statement Monday morning called the shooting in Las Vegas an “evil tragedy” and offered condolences. 

Ryan’s full statement:

“America woke up this morning to heartbreaking news. This evil tragedy horrifies us all. To the people of Las Vegas and to the families of the victims, we are with you during this time. The whole country stands united in our shock, in our condolences, and in our prayers.” 

The president’s scheduled trip to Puerto Rico is still on, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told NBC News on Monday morning.

President Donald Trump announced last week that he’d head to Puerto Rico on Tuesday to oversee the recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory, where millions of citizens were left without power and, a week later, nearly half the island’s residents still do not have a potable water source.

The president is expected to speak at 10:30 a.m. EST from the White House after his daily intelligence briefing. 

Here’s a shot of a shattered window from the 32nd floor from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where shooter Stephen Paddock released a rapid-fire barrage of bullets on a music festival across the strip. 

Marilou Danley, named a person of interest in the investigation into the massacre, has been located and is not believed to be involved “at this time,” law enforcement officials told reporters Monday morning.

“We have had conversations with her and we believed her, at this time, not to be involved. But obviously that investigation will continue,” Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo said, adding that Danley had been located out of the country. “She was not with [Paddock, the suspected shooter] when he checked in. We have discovered he was utilizing some of her identification.”

Danley, 62, lived with Paddock and was initially thought to be traveling with him in Las Vegas. 

After being briefed on the horrific Las Vegas shooting early Monday, President Donald Trump will make remarks this morning, per White House pool. 

Trump will speak about the shooting from the Diplomatic Room at 10:30 a.m. ET.

Earlier, Trump tweeted his condolences to the victims and families. Vice President Mike Pence and the first lady also tweeted about the violence. 

The brother of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock was stunned to learn Monday that his relative was the suspected perpetrator of the largest mass shooting in modern American history.

“He was just a guy,” Paddock told NBC News. “We are completely at a loss.”

Paddock, who lives in Orlando, said his brother was retired in Mesquite, Nevada and spent his time at the hotels, going to shows and gambling. 

“Mars just fell into the earth,” he said. “We’re completely dumbfounded.”

House Majority White Steve Scalise, who returned to Congress last week after being shot when a gunman opened fire on members of the Republican congressional baseball team in Alexandria, Virginia, in June, tweeted that he and his wife, Jennifer, are praying for the Las Vegas shooting victims. 

Virginia’s Democratic candidate for governor, Ralph Northam, had two gun violence-related campaign events planned for today with former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was severely injured in a deadly mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona. Those events have been cancelled, Northam’s press office said. 

A gunman fired a barrage of bullets on an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas Sunday night, killing at least 50 people and injuring more than 400 others, police said, in the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

From his room on the 32nd floor of a glitzy hotel, the shooter, identified by law enforcement officials as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, fired shot after shot down on the crowd of more than 22,000, sending terrified concertgoers running for their lives.

Here’s what we know as of 9:00 a.m. ET:

  • 50 people were killed, an estimated 406 injured in deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
  • Gunman identified as Stephen Paddock, 64-year-old man from Mesquite, Nevada.
  • Several weapons were found inside Paddock’s room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
  • President Donald Trump is monitoring the developments, the White House said, and expected to speak later.