the cbs evening news is up next. >> it's followed by kpix5 news right here at 6:30. (rapid gunfire) >> we have an active shooter. >> mason: massacre in las vegas. >> shots fired from mandalay eay. >> we have multiple, multiple victims shot. >> mason: a gunman in a high- rise hotel opens fire on a concert 32 floors below. >> it was an act of pure evil. >> the shots just kept coming. >> you could see bodies dropping and people getting shot. oresason: scores are killed in the deadliest shooting in modern u.s. history. .> i saw strangers helping strangers and saving lives. >> we need your truck. we just need to get people over to the hospital, okay? >> in moments of tragedy and horror, america comes together as one. (bell tolls)

this is the "cbs evening news," reporting tonight from las vegas. here is anthony mason. >> mason: america is a nation in mourning tonight for victims of the deadliest mass shooting in modern u.s. history. isod evening. it happened late last night just jhind me. that is the 43-story mandalay bay hotel & casino. las vegas police say a heavily armed gunman broke windows on the 32nd floor and fired down on thousands of people attending an open-air concert. many fled down this street that's right behind me here. there is still crime scene tape up. you can see bloody footprints on the sidewalk and the clothes they left behind as they literally ran for their lives. fo least 59 people were killed, more than 500 injured, most of them by the gunfire. police say the gunman, 64-year-

old stephen paddock, of mesquite, nevada, killed himself before they arrived. they have not determined a motive, but they say they have found no links to terrorism. we have extensive coverage tonight beginning with john blackstone. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: country music star jason aldean was on stage when the firing began. (rapid gunfire) shortly after 10:00 local time. (rapid gunfire) but it took a full 20 seconds for people to realize this wasn't fireworks. >> that's not a firecracker. >> reporter: then came chaos. the sound of automatic weapon fire mixed with pandemonium. >> somebody's hit. somebody's hit. >> shots fired. >> there's many people down. >> reporter: the shooter paused

several times. >> babe, you're okay. let's go. we can't go yet. >> reporter: gayle davis held on to a police officer for dear life. >> and then we said, okay, it's over, it's over, and then it would start again. >> reporter: some people ran. others sought cover behind walls and gates. still others froze in the open. this woman simply ducked. >> everyone was just literally laying on top of each other trying to get out of the way. the shots just kept coming. >> reporter: people desperately sought help for the wounded any way they could. >> we need your truck. we just need to get people over to the hospital, okay? >> we can't worry about victims. we need to stop the shooter before there are more victims. anybody have eyes on the shooter? >> reporter: meanwhile, police searched for the gunman. >> gunfire is going right over our heads. it's going over our heads. we're down here with a bunch of civilians. be advised we are taking fire from a very high floor. every officer that comes they're

driving on las vegas boulevard because it's coming from mandalay bay on the boulevard side. >> reporter: the shooter, identified later by police as 64-year-old stephen paddock, was, in fact, firing from four football fields away through two windows 32 stories up. swat officers moved in. >> go ahead. >> i'm at the suspect's door. i need everybody in that hallway to be aware and get back. we need to pop this and see if we get any type of response from this guy, see if he's in here or if he's moved out somewhere else. >> all units on the 32nd floor, swat has an explosive breach. everyone in the hallway needs the move back. >> breech, breech, breech! >> reporter: inside, where paddock had been a guest since last thursday, they found an arsenal. 16 guns. clark county sheriff joseph lombardo. >> he had killed himself and we'll have to go through our body-worn camera and existing video to see whether we engaged

him at the same approximate time or not. >> reporter: gayle davis said the terror seemed to last forever. >> i have never been that scared in my life, in my life ever. >> reporter: even when people managed to get out of the tclosed concert area over here and were running down these streets, they were still running in fear with the sound of gunfire echoing off the buildings all around them. anthony? >> mason: john blackstone. thanks, john. we're just beginning to learn the identities of the victims. carter evans is following that vart of the story. carter? >> reporter: anthony, you can just imagine what the triage must have been like, ambulances arriving one after the other. in all more than 500 patients were transferred to local hospitals, but not all of the critically wounded arrived in an ambulance. in the chaos, confused concert- goers ran in any direction they could, over walls, on top of each other and into hotel

lobbies just trying to get out of the line of fire. >> be advised, it is automatic fire, fully automatic fire from an elevated position. take cover. >> reporter: gayle davis was at the concert. >> this girl had been standing right beside me, and she had fallen. she grabbed her stomach. her hands were bloody and she screamed and she fell back. >> reporter: concert goers who were not injured became first responders, moving victims in wheelbarrows, office chairs, and hotel luggage carts. tom macintosh was shot in the leg when a stranger stopped the bleeding and drove him to the emergency room in the back of a truck. >> you're surrounded by thousands of people. you don't know who is shooting at you. it's pretty stressful. >> reporter: more than 100 gunshot victims poured into university medical center according to trauma surgeon jay coats. >> with so many people come so fast, we did damage control, which is stopping the process of dying.

>> reporter: move on to the next one? >> get next one in. we did that all night. >> reporter: by morning nearly 50 people were dead, like 29- year-old sonny nelson from tennessee, rachael parker from manhattan beach, california, and charleston hartfield, a las vegas cop who coached youth football. hundreds more survived, and with hospitals running short on resources, they put out a plea for blood. jeff coe is one of many who stood outside to donate. >> they'll give blood, as much as they need. >> reporter: this is university medical center, the only level- one trauma center in the state. last night they took in 104 patients. now, four of them died, 12 are still in critical condition, but anthony, 40 have already been treated and released. >> mason: carter, they're doing incredible work there. reanks. earlier i spoke with brothers corey and craig nyman who were watching the concert just steps away from the band.

did people realize what was happening? >> no. well, kind of. >> when we heard the first couple sounds, a woman went down. we didn't know what was going on. she didn't know what was going on. she was there. then they looked at her cowboy boot and you could see something punctured the leather in the boot. right has the was happening, everything happened so fast, you could hear the first rounds go off. >> mason: how long did the shooting go on for? >> mason: ho >> at least 10, 15 minutes. eastthere were breaks. we every time there was break, crowds of people would move as he was trying the reload. >> mason: as this was happening, >> j did you see in the crowd? >> just seeing people coming from all different angles, ,ucking for cover. trying to find safety. >> i saw people on the ground, people littered just everywhere, tears and we heard glass breaking. it was just noise. >> pandemonium? e. pretty much. pretty much. we were waiting for the shots. waiting for the shots. they stopped and we had to move. out the back a gate got opened or trampled.

ckere were cars. there were people. no one knew what to do. people were being carried. there were people lifeless. there were people everywhere. >> mason: you guys must be in shock today. >> physically we're thankful and very fortunate. mentally, as residents of the city, as fans, as attendees, it hurts. it is really like mental trauma on your body. you never want anything like this to happen. >> mason: our cbs news justice and homeland security correspondent jeff pegues has been working his law enforcement sources, and here's what he found out about the gunman. >> reporter: after stephen paddock checked into the mandalay bay resort last thursday, investigators say he spent the next three days gambling in the casino, and he stockpiled a cache of 19 weapons, a mixture of hand guns and rifles in his hotel room. two of the guns were country tripods.

police and the f.b.i. are now trying to determine a motive. >> we're shocked, horrified, completely dumbfounded about this. >> reporter: eric paddock, the killer's brother, says he was interviewed by investigators for about four hours. >> the fact that he had those kind of weapons is just... where the hell did he get automatic weapons? >> anything? >> nothing. no religious affiliation, no political affiliation. no, he just hung out. >> reporter: stephen paddock was an accountant, but family members say recently he was a professional gambler who won large jackpots. he was also a licensed hunter and pilot who rented, owned, and sold multiple properties in four states over the last four decades. paddock's father was once on the f.b.i.'s most wanted list. a 1969 notice described benjamin hoskins paddock as a bank robber who was psychopathic and considered armed and very dangerous.

until last night's mass shooting, stephen paddock's only run-in with law enforcement was this 2009 parking ticket. >> it was well planned out, and it took a lot of strategic thinking. >> reporter: former f.b.i. profiler mary ellen o'toole says paddock may have been planning the attack for years. >> he had a view of the concert, and he probably had gone to other rooms and chose specifically this room. so there was surveillance that likely occurred before this event. >> reporter: a search of turned uphome turned up 18 additional weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition and explosives. today isis claimed responsibility for this attack, but investigators say so far they have found no link between paddock and the terrorist organization. anthony? >> mason: jeff pegues. thanks, jeff. people who encountered paddock recently are having a tough time believing he could have

have committed mass murder. demarco morgan has that. >> as soon as i saw the name, it was instant recognition. >> mason: steven paddock purchased a shotgun from utah gun shop owner chris michel in february. >> we have code words between us as staff if something doesn't feel right, if something doesn't look right. we will do everything we can to actually stop the sale, and none of the alarms went up from any of the staff that dealt with him. >> reporter: today law enforcement searched paddock's mesquite home. >> we haven't had any run-ins with him in the past. >> he's a nice guy. he was kind of quirky, but a ace guy. >> reporter: paddock's neighbors ibscribed him as quiet, anocial, and having an odd sense of humor, but not as violent. >> it was just kind of unbelievable to think somebody who was in our community, a who was in member of our community could possibly go out and do something like that. it's just unbelievable. >> reporter: paddock was a licensed hunter and was known to frequent gun shops near his home in mesquite, nevada.

he lived here with his here witd, marilou danley, who is out of the country. and at this time law enforcement believe she was not involved. >> mason: demarco morgan in mesquite, thanks. marco morgan inting even thopped, people in the audience were rushing to help the wounded. some giving aid were off-duty cops and firefighters. others were ex-military. adriana diaz has their story. >> we have an active shooter, we have an active shooter inside the fairgrounds. >> reporter: minutes after the shooting began, law enforcement erambled to the scene. >> we have multiple casualties. multiple casualties. >> reporter: there were off-duty first responders in the crowd who had been attending the concert for fun. this is first body, the first victim? like robert hayes of the l.a. fire department. what was in it that made you stay and go from person to person to see how you could help? >> honestly because if that was

someone in my family, that's what i would have wanted somebody to do for me. h, my, my god. >> reporter: he described the scene as a war zone with victims being helped by strangers. >> everybody was coming together to try to work. there were people sitting there that wouldn't leave people that were shot, and they didn't even know them. >> reporter: strangers? >> yeah. >> we need your truck. we need to get people over to the hospital. o go ahead. put them all in the back. >> reporter: some improvised to help victims, turning their personal vehicles into ambulances. w there was a gentleman that was shot, and he said, "can you help me?" and so i put him in my car, and i had like six people in my car, people without shoes, running, just to get away, and... >> reporter: in the midst of chaos, there was hope. vanessa is a nurse from orange county, california. >> everyone was communicating and working together. you got this person? you got this person? you got this person? it was completely horrible, but

it was absolutely amazing to see all the people coming together. >> reporter: some of the first responders also became victims. several officers and firemen who were both on and off duty were shot and a las vegas police gaficer was killed. >> mason: adriana diaz, thank you, adriana. coming up next on the "cbs evening news," the president calls the attack pure evil but does not label it terrorism. and later, a nurse on treating victim after victim. fter victim. my checkups go well, but i want awesome!

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then he led the nation in a moment of silence. here's major garrett. >> it was an act of pure evil. >> reporter: president trump spoke somberly of sadness and faith. fa scripture teaches us the lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. >> reporter: the president also spoke of togetherness. >> our unity cannot be shattered by evil. sr bonds cannot be broken by violence. and though we feel such great anger at the senseless murder of our fellow citizens, it is our love that defines us today. >> reporter: and the struggle to comprehend madness. >> i know we are searching for some kind of meaning in the s,aos, some kind of light in the darkness. the answers do not come easy. >> reporter: words did not come easily for press secretary sarah huckabee sanders, overcome when

describing acts of heroism that in some cases cost lives. >> the memory of those who displayed the ultimate expression of love amidst an oimaginable act of hate will never fade. >> reporter: the white house said this was no time to discuss gun control or any other possible policy response. it was instead a time for silence and white house it was i siurning. (bell tolls) in a 2015 interview, after a mass shooting in oregon, candidate president trump said save nothing to do with such crimes, that it's all about mental illness and people who h lip through the cracks." there is no sign president trump has changed his mind on the topic. anthony? >> mason: major garrett at the white house. thank you, major. next a trauma nurse who helped treat dozens of victims.

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>> mason: ashley justy is a trauma nurse who worked at sunrise hospital for more than rkx years. she's currently at a private linic, but when she heard about the shooting, she went back to sunrise to help. i spoke with her today. what sort of injuries did you see? >> all gunshot wounds, extremities, ankles, hands, chest, arms, people with more severe were taken to the e did you room right away. they were critical. >> mason: what else did you see that i might have missed? >> you know, just a lot of people frantic, asking for their family members, people asking for their spouses, have you seen so and so, have you seen so and so? but there are so many people, no one has a name. everyone came in under an alias because there were too many that was very hard trying to calm patients when they were looking for their spouses and significant others. there was a young lady i tried si to console.

she was hyperventilating. she had gotten shot. she said her husband had gotten shot. she said he was shot in the face. eey just had a baby. it was just bad. it was a lot of emotion going on. >> mason: ashley justy told us simply last night was hell. we'll be back from las vegas in a moment. yeah. time for medicare, huh. i have no idea how we're going to get through this. follow me. choosing a plan can be super-complicated. but it doesn't have to be. unitedhealthcare can guide you through the confusion, with helpful people, tools and plans. including the only plans with the aarp name. well that wasn't so bad at all. that's how we like it. aarp medicare plans, from unitedhealthcare. and when youod sugar is a replace one meal... choices. ...or snack a day with glucerna...

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the pulse nightclub attack in orlando that left 49 dead last year. now our hearts ache again for the neighbors we lost in las vegas. flags in washington and across the nation were lowered to half- staff today on orders from the president for a mourning period that will last until sunset this friday. foreign embassies lowered their well, as well, with leaders from the pope to the queen of olenand offering condolences. some cbs stations will be leaving us now for their regular pcal programming, but for most of you, this special expanded edition of the "cbs evening news" from las vegas will continue in a moment. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ ♪ it feels good to be back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

capt captioning sponsored by cbs (rapid gunfire) >> shots coming from mandalay bay. >> hearing this loud sound. it sounded like a jackhammer. just massive bursts from the ron. >> it felt like it continued for 20 minutes straight. >> everyone is just running. you can see people getting shot. >> we have multiple casualties. shot.unshot wound to the chest and head. i need immediate medical. >> it was chaos. it was absolute chaos. >> oh, my god. .> we pray for the day when evil ay vanished and the innocent are safe from hatred and from fear. this is the "cbs evening news," reporting tonight from las vegas. here is anthony mason. >> mason: good evening again, and for those of you just joining us, this is a spl