ISIS has claimed responsibility for the mass shooting in Las Vegas where 50 people were killed and more than 406 wounded, and said the attacker had converted to Islam a few months ago.
Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, a resident of nearby Mesquite, Nevada, opened fire on a country music festival taking place at Las Vegas Village from a room across the street in the Mandalay Bay Hotel just after 10 pm on Sunday evening.
The claim by the terror group has not yet been verified, and contradicts statements by Paddock’s family and police.
‘The Las Vegas attack was carried out by a soldier of the Islamic State and he carried it out in response to calls to target states of the coalition,’ the group’s news agency Amaq said in reference to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the group in the Middle East.
‘The Las Vegas attacker converted to Islam a few months ago,’ Amaq added.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said investigations are still ongoing and police have not yet determined a motive.
Paddock lived just 90 minutes outside Las Vegas in the city of Mesquite, in a retirement community.
Police discovered in ‘excess of 10 rifles’ in the room.
