U.S. Vice President Michael Pence visited Las Vegas on Saturday to express solidarity with the residents and visitors shaken by last Sunday’s mass shooting during a country music concert that left 58 people dead.
Accompanied by his wife, Karen, Pence addressed a crowd gathered to honor the victims of the shooting, the deadliest such event in modern U.S. history.
“We are with you,” Pence told the crowd. “Today, we are all Vegas Strong,” referring to a popular social media phrase. He praised the police officers and emergency officials who rushed “into harm’s way,” he said, “without regard to their personal safety.”
“We offer our prayers, from our hearts to the hearts of heaven,” he added. “We pray for those we lost and for those they left behind.”
Meanwhile, federal agents have begun removing from the scene the personal belongings concertgoers left behind when they fled from the bullets spraying into the crowd last Sunday. Among the items were backpacks, purses, baby strollers and lawn chairs, piled high on Saturday as agents loaded them into a truck.
Officials said they would begin returning those items to their owners next week.
And investigators continued to explore the possible motives of shooter Stephen Paddock, 64, the gambler who took his own life after shooting repeatedly into the crowd. Between the gunfire and the struggle to flee the area, nearly 500 hundred people were injured Sunday in addition to the 58 who were killed.
Investigators have found that Paddock planned his attack meticulously, choosing carefully his hotel room and modifying a dozen guns to enable them to fire rapidly, like automatic weapons. He also apparently set up cameras inside and outside his hotel room to watch for approaching security officers.
In recent days, experts have found that Paddock had also booked hotel rooms overlooking other big, outdoor concerts, including Lollapalooza in Chicago in August and the Life is Beautiful show in Las Vegas in late September.
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