Local Resident Was Staying At Same Hotel As Las Vegas Gunman; 'It's So Surreal'
ST. CLAIR SHORES (WWJ/AP) -- St. Clair Shores native Andrea Adams checked out of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas yesterday morning -- not long before dozens were killed and hundreds injured in the nation's deadliest mass shooting.
Adams arrived home in Michigan Sunday afternoon, and it wasn't until 6 a.m. today that she found out about the shooting from her mother. She said it was a "surreal" feeling when she realized she was just a few floors below where the gunman was located.
"It's so surreal," Adams told WWJ Newsradio 950. "No this didn't just happen, like you keep looking at stuff and you're like 'he was literally just 14 floors above me doing all of this stuff.' I had just had a good time in Vegas, my cousin was having a good time and now everything just totally changed."
At least 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured in Stephen Paddock's attack on the Route 91 Harvest Festival, where country music star Jason Aldean was performing for more than 22,000 fans. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The 64-year-old gunman killed himself in the hotel room before authorities arrived.
Adams' cousin was at that country music concert at the time of the shooting. She and her boyfriend were able to get away safely, but Adams was extremely scared when she didn't initially hear from them following the shooting.
"Once I started looking at stuff online I called my cousin, and I didn't hear from her and my heart started to pound a little bit," Adams said. "I called her boyfriend, he didn't answer and then my heart really started pounding. I called her back and thank God she answered. She said 'hey we're safe but that's all I can tell you right now.'"
As of 8:30 p.m. on Monday, authorities were still trying to determine Paddock's motive behind the mass shooting.
"I can't get into the mind of a psychopath at this point," Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said.
Paddock had 17 guns in his hotel room, including rifles with scopes, Lombardo said. Two were modified to make them fully automatic, according to two U.S. officials.
© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.