On Sunday evening, October 1st, 2017, the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, hosting roughly 22,000 concert attendees and country music fans. 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, a millionaire retired accountant and high limits video poker gambler, used a sledgehammer to break the window of his suite hotel room he had rented on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino and fired multiple weapons into the crowd who were gathered in the plaza.
The attack killed 60 people and injured more than 850, including 413 with gunshot wounds, making it the deadliest mass shooting in US history. It was later discovered that Paddock had made numerous trips to move multiple weapons and ammo into his hotel room and placed a camera on a hotel room service dolly to monitor activity in the hallway leading to his room. He had been found to have brought 23 firearms (with some fitted with bump stocks) into the room, which included AR-15 and AR-10 models that fired .223 and .308 caliber rounds. He used 100 round drum magazines and also had some rifles and handguns in the room that were never fired. Before police breached Paddock's room, he committed suicide by firearm.
Clark County police and the FBI determined there was no motive for the shooting or that the motive was unknown. Police determined that Stephen Paddock had made hotel reservations in Chicago during Lollapalooza in August and the Life is Beautiful music festival in Las Vegas, just days before the Route 91 festival. Both hotel rooms he had rented had a direct line of site to the respective festival crowds. Paddock had also done substantial internet research on SWAT/police tactics and firearms and explosives. The FBI had determined that Paddock had spent the majority of his savings before the shooting and interviews with family members uncovered that he had a need for notoriety.
While some of aspects of the attacks are well known, what was less known, was that the Islamic State terrorist group took credit for the attack the next day on October 2nd, via its self-run Amaq propaganda news channel. ISIS uses Amaq to report on larger or more important claims that need to garner attention over its more common smaller attacks and activities. The claim was titled, "About 600 people were wounded and injured from the crusaders in a blessed attack in the American city of Las Vegas". The claim said that Paddock heeded a religious call to ISIS caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and targeted a member of the "crusader alliance" after closely monitoring activities in Las Vegas. They released a "kunya" (nom de guerre) for Paddock and said he exhausted his ammunition and said regarding the attack that, "most people do not know". Other claims said Paddock has converted to Islam, 6 months prior to the attack. ISIS also claimed the attack in its daily publication, "Nashir News Agency" and in its weekly Al-Naba newsletter that is released every Friday. ISIS also publishes monthly, 90 day and yearly reports and infographics in its various publications, almost akin to corporate annual reports, that review or summarize attacks from its various so called, "provinces" around the world, where they maintain some territorial control. They maintain a very hierarchical and organized structure, and it will break down attacks by methods, the various targets of its attacks and total numbers of equipment destroyed and/or people killed and injured.
ISIS uses an Islamic/Hijri calendar to review attacks by month or by year. It released a year end summary of all of its worldwide attacks from 09-21-2017 through 09-11-2018. The attacks include summaries of major attacks that occurred throughout the world, including in Afghanistan during this timeframe, which matches ISIS attacks that occurred in Kabul on March 25th and September 5th, 2018, that killed a combined 59 people and injured 156. They also summarize an attack in that same yearly report from Sinai Egypt that occurred on November 24th, 2017. Their yearly report shows major attacks occurring in Syria, which match attacks that occurred on July 25th, 2018 that killed 258 people, attacks in May and June against Syrian government forces and attacks on villages in southern Syria in July 2018. ISIS claims a smaller attack that occurred in Libya and that matches an attack that happened in Libya on May 2nd, 2018, in Tripoli. They show attacks occurred in Indonesia which matches suicide attacks from May 13th-14th, 2018. ISIS also shows smaller attacks happening in France and Russia, which also match smaller attacks that took place in both countries. Included in this report, is an attack being shown having taken place in the US. This would be the only attack out of dozens within this annual report that would not have matched a specific, real-world attack.
ISIS has included news footage from Vegas in videos, including November’s “Flames of War II: Until the Final Hour”
In 2022, ISIS later released a video with narration done with Bengali accents under the "At-Taqwa Foundation" where they show videos from a summary of ISIS attacks, including the Orlando mass shooting, that also includes the Las Vegas attack.
While there have been numerous times where ISIS supporters have taken credit for an explosion or violent attack that they did not carry out, it is rare or difficult to find any examples of official ISIS outlets such as Al-Naba, Nashir News or Amaq taking credit for an event where they were not involved. A recent attack in June 2025 at a church in Damascus Syria was widely attributed to ISIS, yet the group remained silent about the attack in their official media and eventually a different group named Saraya Ansar Al-Sunnah took credit for that incident days later. ISIS is not shy about claiming attacks where their operatives behead and execute Christian civilians because of their religion, in the Congo, Mozambique, the Philippines or in Nigeria.
ISIS have also issued corrections if the information they shared contains factual errors. In May 2021, they released a correction that an attack occurred in Nigeria and not across the border in Niger. they released a correction for an attack in September 2018 of an attack in Ahwaz Iran where they clarified that the Iranian president was not present at the attack when that had been claimed in an earlier report. ISIS media released some factual mistakes for its Nigerian branch and later issued corrections, after not posting a claim for a few days.
ISIS supporters have also claimed that members of Boko Haram took credit for attacks that were not carried out by the group and there have been reported discussions between emirs and sheikhs of both ISIS and Boko Haram regarding this topic.
Many claims that ISIS has taken credit for attacks have often been from unofficial channels or wrongly attributed to them.
What information could support Stephen Paddock being an ISIS member and his attack being carried out in conjunction with the terrorist group?
Although Paddock was said to have been looking for fame and notoriety according to his family members, most had not been in touch with him for years or decades. The lack of motive could mean that there is not much information that the FBI was able to identify at all and they do not have the entire picture or didn't want to provide the group with propaganda points. during this time, there were conflicts between the Trump Adiminstration and the White House. The FBI said gaining any insight into Paddock's belief system or past was difficult and were only able to find his online searches about carrying out the attack itself. The fact that ISIS had a "kunya" for Paddock and took credit for the attack so quickly in its official media and continues to do so in its official reporting, seems that a connection could be very possible. In 2017, Trump was escalating the fight against ISIS in Iraq. Anti- ISIS Coalition forces captured Mosul in July 2017 and dealt a powerful defeat to ISIS in Iraq, which led the end of the so called "caliphate". September 2017 saw Coalition forces seize Tal Afar from ISIS, which was one of their last strongholds in Iraq. In Syria, the Trump Administration was also heavily bombing the ISIS capitol of Raqqa, causing a very large number of enemy and civilian casualties in Syria. Simultaneously in 2017, the Syrian government, backed by Russian airstrikes pushed ISIS forces out of Deir-Ez Zor province. August and September 2017 were the most intense battles against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, which would have garnered the most attention from ISIS supporters in and outside of the Middle East. Any attack planned during the time period of mid 2017 would have served as a counterattack and demoralization effort by the group and its supporters. A large attack in the US could have given ISIS a big shot in the arm to show they were hitting the enemy on their home turf and undermine Middle East war efforts.
As well, October 1st 2017 fell during the 11th day of the Islamic month of Muharram and occurred the day after the holy day of Ashura (which commemerates in the Koran when the Israelites escaped the Pharoah through the Red Sea), which would have fallen on September 30th, 2017. This could have been a symbolic date in both the Gregorian and Islamic calenders being a new month and perhaps showing the fith would continue. ISIS also carried out an IED attack just one year earlier in Balkh Afghanistan, killing 15 people. The target chosen being a country music concert with American flags being prominently displayed would have been a symbolic target.
What could point away from Paddock being an ISIS member was that he killed himself before he was captured, no online connections or associates were found and that he wasn't known to be Muslim to anyone. The fact that Paddock had investigated attacking other music venues could have just shown he was after a high casualty rate without caring about symbolism or target specifics.
Is there more information to come from the new Kash Patel led FBI or hidden somewhere among ISIS leadership in Syria or Iraq? We may never know. Releasing the information at a later date to contradict US law enforcement findings, would be powerful propaganda to undermine their messaging but perhaps those with that information were killed in the multiple airstrikes launched throughout 2017 and that information will never come to light? The answer could lie with a complicated, psychotic person with a grudge against his fellow citizens and meant to confuse and disrupt, even 8 years later. Regardless of where people stand, the ISIS announced involvement with this attack, warrants more investigation and answers.