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There’s no evidence ISIS was behind the Las Vegas shooting

One expert says there's a strong chance they're lying.

Police officers and medical personnel in Las Vegas after Mondays' tragic shooting. CREDIT: AP Photo/John Locher
Police officers and medical personnel in Las Vegas after Mondays' tragic shooting. CREDIT: AP Photo/John Locher

It only took a few hours for international terrorist group ISIS to claim responsibility for the horrific shooting attack in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday, which left at least 58 dead and more than 500 wounded.

But ISIS did not provide any evidence to back up this claim, and at least one expert cautions that it’s entirely possible the bloodthirsty organization is lying.

Soon after the Associated Press broke the news of ISIS’s claim, right-wing writers such as Laura Loomer were quick to pile on and repeat the assertion.

Even before the AP’s report, Loomer and other right-wing pundits claimed the attack was perpetrated by a Muslim Monday morning — before police identified 64-year-old local resident Stephen Paddock as the prime suspect in the case.

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Hours later, however, the FBI announced they have yet to find any connection between the alleged shooter and international terror groups such as ISIS.

Granted, it’s possible officials could discover evidence of an ISIS connection in the future. But as CNN terrorism expert Paul Cruickshank pointed out on Twitter, ISIS has repeatedly claimed responsibility for attacks that ultimately had little to zero connection to the group.

Cruickshank, who also serves as editor-in-chief of a magazine published by West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center, pointed to several instances in the past few months where ISIS claimed responsibility for a violent attack, only for their claims to be proven false.

Cruickshank also pointed to reports that the gunman took his own life as atypical for ISIS agents, who usually condemn self-inflicted suicide.

Other reports also cast doubt ISIS’s claims that the shooter “converted to Islam“ before the attack. The shooter’s brother, for instance, told CBS News his sibling had “no religious affiliation.”

“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told Washington Post reporters on Monday.