DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And we are focused on the city of Las Vegas this morning where over 50 people, according to police, were killed and more than 400 injured when a shooter opened fire at an open-air country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Pam Schneider from Bismarck, N.D., was at the concert when the shooting started.
PAM SCHNEIDER: I heard what I thought was fireworks, but yet I didn't see anything lighting up the sky. And then it had kind of a strange sound, almost like a helicopter maybe going into, like, a crash or something. It was a - such a strange sound. And then I realized what I was actually hearing was automatic gunfire.
GREENE: Now, the shooter, who we're told took his own life, has been identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock from Mesquite, Nev. Earlier today, Officer Quinn Averett of the Mesquite Police Department spoke about the shooter.
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QUINN AVERETT: What's unique for us is, the gunman - the shooter and the person with him - we, the Mesquite Police Department, have not had any contact with these people in the past. We haven't had any traffic stops. We haven't had any law enforcement contacts, no arrests or nothing.
GREENE: And this is how Officer Averett described the community where Steve Paddock lived.
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AVERETT: It's a retirement community area, I believe 55 and older. It's a newer part of the community, so all the homes there are fairly new. It's really quiet. It is a cul-de-sac. It's just a regular neighborhood.
GREENE: OK, that is an official from the Mesquite, Nev., police department. That is where the shooter who carried out a mass shooting in Las Vegas last night was from. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
