When the gunshots started, videos showed, those in front of the stage dropped to their stomachs — often an adequate first measure when under fire. But on Sunday night, the decision potentially put them at greater risk. 
 
 Mr. Paddock’s position overhead gave him a vantage point over objects and obstacles that would typically protect people from bullets flying from a gunman at ground level. It also meant that inaccurate shots — the sort common to rapid or hurried fire, which typically sail high or strike the ground short — could still plunge into areas where people were huddled. 
 
 Audio recordings of the shooting suggest that at least one of Mr. Paddock’s weapons fired automatically, discharging multiple bullets with a single depression of a trigger, in what are commonly called bursts. 
 
 Weapons capable of burst fire have long been federally regulated in the United States and are more difficult to obtain than weapons that fire semiautomatically, for which regulations vary by state. 
 
 It was not clear on Monday evening whether Mr. Paddock possessed such weapons, or used semiautomatic weapons that had been altered. In some videos of the shooting, the rate of fire sounds inconsistent, at times sputtering. 
 
 This suggests the possibility that a weapon could have been modified to fire more quickly, a change to semiautomatic firearms known as bump or slide fire. Such modifications harness the recoil to allow for rapid fire. 
 
 Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of Clark County, Nev., said that at least 16 rifles, ranging from .308 to .223 caliber, and a handgun were retrieved from Mr. Paddock’s hotel room. A federal law enforcement official said that AR-15-style rifles were among them. The authorities did not detail all of the guns, or which weapons Mr. Paddock fired. 
 
 Mr. Paddock had purchased some guns in Arizona, according to a gun seller there who spoke with the authorities. ||||| Students from University of Nevada Las Vegas hold a vigil Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, in Las Vegas. A gunman on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino hotel rained automatic weapons fire down on the crowd... (Associated Press) 
 
 LAS VEGAS (AP) — Rob Ledbetter's battlefield instincts kicked in quickly as bullets rained overhead. 
 
 The 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served as a sniper in Iraq immediately began tending to the wounded, one of several heroes to emerge from the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Amid the massacre in Las Vegas, which left 59 people dead and more than 500 injured, there were acts of compassion and countless heroics that officials say saved scores of lives. 
 
 There was a man one survivor knows only as Zach who herded people to a safe place. There was a registered nurse from Tennessee who died shielding his wife. 
 
 Like many people in the crowd of some 22,000 country music fans Sunday night, Ledbetter heard the pop-pop-popping noise and figured it was fireworks. Then he saw people dropping to the ground. When more booms echoed in the night air, he recognized the sound of automatic weapons fire. 
 
 The gunman, identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, a 64-year-old retired accountant from Mesquite, Nevada, created his own sniper's perch inside the 32nd floor room at the Mandalay Bay casino hotel, across from the concert grounds. He appeared to fire unhindered for more than 10 minutes, according to radio traffic, and then killed himself before officers stormed in and found 23 firearms. 
 
 "The echo, it sounded like it was coming from everywhere and you didn't know which way to run," said Ledbetter, who was at the concert with seven people including his brother, who was shot and injured, and his wife. They found cover in a VIP area of the concert. Once out of harm's way, he turned to injured strangers. 
 
 Thanks to a man who took the flannel shirt off his back, Ledbetter says he put a makeshift tourniquet on a wounded teenage girl, whose face was covered with blood. 
 
 "Some random guy, I said, 'I need your shirt,' "said Ledbetter, who is now a mortgage broker and a resident of Las Vegas. "He just gave me the flannel off his back." 
 
 Ledbetter said he compressed someone else's shoulder wound, and he fashioned a bandage for a man whose leg was shot through by a bullet. 
 
 "There was a guy that looked like he had a through and through on his leg, that we just put a T-shirt around and just did a bandanna tie," said Ledbetter, who was outside University Medical Center on Monday, where his brother was being treated for a gunshot that went through his arm and into his chest. He is expected to survive. 
 
 Ledbetter and others grabbed the injured man, carried him out to Las Vegas Boulevard, put him in the back of a utility truck with five to 10 other people that was headed to the hospital. 
 
 Ledbetter said he would have helped more people but couldn't clear the barrage of gunfire. 
 
 "I'm saving people, or trying to do my best. But it got to the point, I saw people all over, laying where we used to be standing ... just laying there and nobody getting to them and I couldn't get out there. The shots just kept coming in and bouncing. I would have been in harm's way," he said. 
 
 He worries that those unfamiliar with battlefields will suffer what they have survived. 
 
 "Everybody there is going to have emotional problems. I know that. There was blood everywhere I went: Excalibur, Luxor, on the Strip, on the street," Ledbetter said. "All these people are going to have PTSD. I feel bad for all of them." 
 
 Another concertgoer, Anna Kupchyan, credits a man she knows only as Zach for saving her life and about nine others when he herded them into an outdoor trailer serving as a restroom. 
 
 Kupchyan, a 27-year-old law student from Los Angeles, said bullets were raining down on the crowd as she and a horde of others began running in search of a way out of the outdoor venue. 
 
 The man, Zach, opened a door and ordered people inside and then joined them and shut the door, Kupchyan said. 
 
 They stayed inside as the shooting continued, everyone paralyzed in fear, she said. 
 
 "Then security came and they shouted for us to get out, to run," she recalled. Outside the trailer, dead bodies were sprawled on the ground, including a man who had been shot in the head, she said. 
 
 She and her best friend Leslie Aguilar, a 26-year-old therapist, eventually jumped in a cab that was driving by and befriended two other women survivors who let them stay in their hotel room until the danger subsided. 
 
 Not all of Sunday night's heroes survived. 
 
 Sonny Melton, a registered nurse, died in the shooting, according to The Henry County Medical Center in Paris, Tennessee, where he worked. 
 
 His wife, Dr. Heather Melton, an orthopedic surgeon who was with him when shots were fired, survived. 
 
 She told WZTV in Nashville, Tennessee, that her husband "saved my life and lost his." She said her husband was the most kind-hearted, loving man she ever met. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press Writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and Anita Snow in Las Vegas contributed to this report. ||||| (CNN) After Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers from his perch stories above them, officers cautiously crept up a hallway as they prepared to storm the gunman's Las Vegas suite. 
 
 "Breach. Breach. Breach," a voice said on a police radio. Then, a loud blast was heard. 
 
 Las Vegas police on Wednesday released body camera footage from officers who entered Paddock's hotel suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino immediately after October's mass shooting. 
 
 The footage showed the moments before officers swarmed the room, where Paddock's body was discovered. The video also shows police sweeping the premises. 
 
 Paddock, 64, killed 58 people and injured almost 500 when he opened fire on 22,000 concertgoers. 
 
 One video clip shows that police moved forward after the explosion and waited in a doorway as the hotel's alarm went off. 
 
 "There's a 413 on the ground," an officer said, giving the police code for a person with a gun. 
 
 Officers approached Paddock's door, which was blocked by a room service cart. "Looks like it might be a camera of some sort," one officer said. 
 
 Officers noted there were also multiple cameras, according to the footage. 
 
 More officers rushed past. 
 
 "Hold on, hold on," another officer said. 
 
 As officers entered the suite, they noticed more cameras pointing down the hallway, and that the rooms were connected. 
 
 Officers cleared the suite room by room, searching under the bed and in closets with dogs. 
 
 911 call audio will also be released. 
 
 Sheriff Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said video footage, 911 call audio and documents relating to the October 1 massacre would be released on a rolling basis starting with the body camera footage from two officers. 
 
 "I don't know how this footage will be played in the media, but I want to warn you, if you are a survivor or a family who lost a loved one, you should know the video from this concert is disturbing and graphic," he said. 
 
 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Debris is scattered on the ground Monday, October 2, at the site of a country music festival held this past weekend in Las Vegas. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds were injured Sunday when a gunman opened fire on the crowd. Police said the gunman fired from the Mandalay Bay hotel, several hundred feet southwest of the concert grounds. It is the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. Hide Caption 1 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Broken windows of the Mandalay Bay are seen early in Las Vegas on Monday. Police said the gunman fired on the crowd from the 32nd floor of the hotel. Hide Caption 2 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival People cross a street near the Las Vegas Strip just after sunrise on Monday. Thousands were attending the music festival, Route 91 Harvest, when the shooting started. Hide Caption 3 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival People embrace outside the Thomas & Mack Center after the shooting. Hide Caption 4 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Police arrive at the Sands Corporation plane hangar where some people ran to safety after the shooting. Hide Caption 5 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A woman cries while hiding inside the Sands Corporation plane hangar. Hide Caption 6 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Concertgoers dive over a fence to take cover from gunfire on Sunday night. Hide Caption 7 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Police take position outside the Mandalay Bay. Hide Caption 8 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A man lays on top of a woman as others flee the festival grounds. The woman reportedly got up from the scene. Hide Caption 9 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Hide Caption 10 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival People are seen on the ground after the gunman opened fire. Hide Caption 11 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival People run from the festival grounds. Hide Caption 12 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A woman is moved outside the Las Vegas Tropicana resort. Multiple victims were being transported to hospitals in the aftermath of the shooting. Hide Caption 13 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival People are searched by police at the Tropicana. Hide Caption 14 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival An ambulance leaves the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. Hide Caption 15 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A man in a wheelchair is evacuated from the festival after gunfire was heard. Hide Caption 16 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Victims of the shooting are tended to in the street. Hide Caption 17 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Concertgoers help an injured person at the scene. Hide Caption 18 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival People gather around a victim outside the festival grounds. Hide Caption 19 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A couple huddles after shots rang out at the festival. Hide Caption 20 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival An injured woman is helped at the Tropicana. Hide Caption 21 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Police and emergency responders gather at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. Hide Caption 22 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A police officer takes position behind a truck. Hide Caption 23 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A crowd takes cover at the festival grounds. Hide Caption 24 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Police officers advise people to take cover in the wake of the shooting. Hide Caption 25 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival People tend to a victim at the festival grounds. Hide Caption 26 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Police stand at the scene of the shooting. Hide Caption 27 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A woman sits on a curb at the scene of the shooting. Hide Caption 28 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival Police are deployed to the scene. Hide Caption 29 of 30 Photos: Mass shooting at Las Vegas music festival A man makes a phone call as people run from the festival grounds. Hide Caption 30 of 30 
 
 Lombardo said he expected the materials would be released weekly but would not say if the information would be posted on a website or emailed to media. 
 
 Court ordered release of footage 
 
 The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Friday that police had to release the bodycam footage and 911 call audio from the shooting. 
 
 Police had appealed an earlier ruling that the material be released, following requests by media, including CNN. 
 
 Lombardo denied that police were trying to be uncooperative. In a press briefing Tuesday, he cited cost, allocation of resources and potential further victimization of those affected by the shooting as reasons for delaying the release of footage, recordings and documents. 
 
 For example, the department had to reassign detectives from their "primary responsibility" to go over the reports and footage before they were made public, and some personnel would have to endure reliving the shooting, he said. 
 
 "I want the community to know the release of the videos, 911 and documents will have a significant impact on the victims of this tragedy. We believe the release of the graphic footage will further traumatize a wounded community," he said. "And for that, we apologize." 
 
 Lombardo said no employees will be made available for interviews, but said a final comprehensive report on the shooting will come. 
 
 Criticism of police 
 
 Police were criticized about their response when a timeline suggested there had been a six-minute delay between Paddock shooting a security guard and the gunman opening fire on the crowds below his hotel suite. 
 
 The timeline raised questions about why police didn't arrive on the scene sooner. 
 
 "In the public space, the word 'incompetence' has been brought forward. And I am absolutely offended with that characterization," Lombardo said on October 13 
 
 He said that during the six-minute gap, the security guard had been trying to access Paddock's room -- and that he had been shot around the same time the gunman started firing on concertgoers. 
 
 "So there is no conspiracy between the FBI, between the (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) and MGM (the hotel owner). Nobody is attempting to hide anything in reference to this investigation," Lombardo said at the time. 
 
 "The dynamics and the size of this investigation requires us to go through voluminous amounts of information in order to draw an accurate picture."
– One of the many jarring videos to emerge from the Sunday night mass shooting in Las Vegas shows a defiant man standing and taunting the gunman while most of those around him were on the ground or trying to find cover. You can see the video here, but note that it's disturbing. (The man emerges around the 1:10 mark.) "Come on," he can be heard yelling, while gesturing with his arms in the direction of the source of the shots. As the Daily Dot notes, many commenters have criticized the "hyper-macho response," but is it possible the man inadvertently had the right idea in staying upright? A story at the New York Times that digs into the unusual nature of this attack observes that many people instinctively dropped to their stomachs when the bullets began flying. That's usually wise, "but on Sunday night, the decision potentially put them at greater risk," per the account by CJ Chivers, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, and Adam Goldman. The reason is that the gunman was firing from such a high vantage point, the 32nd floor of the hotel across the street. Any "inaccurate shots—the sort common to rapid or hurried fire, which typically sail high or strike the ground short—could still plunge into areas where people were huddled." Still, the choice was stark for concertgoers in the chaos. One puts it this way to the Times: “Either run and get shot and die, or stay and get shot and die.”