LAS VEGAS — Less than 48 hours after the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history, part of the Las Vegas Strip still remains a crime scene -- closed down since Sunday night.

Channel 2 Action News anchor and reporter Justin Wilfon traveled to Las Vegas shortly after learning about the shooting.

Wilfon watched on as investigators scoured the area Tuesday trying to determine why Stephen Paddock opened fire out of the window of a Mandalay Bay hotel room onto the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the strip.

A few of those shots nearly hit Bruce Ure.

“We decided it was time to run. So everybody did. My particular route was behind the stage and while I was running the asphalt was popping up next to me,” Ure told Wilfon.

Channel 2 Action News Anchor and Reporter Justin Wilfon is in Las Vegas. WATCH Channel 2 Action News for LIVE REPORTS from the scene.

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Within just moments, Ure said he went from enjoying the concert to running for his life.

“We made the turn to come back up the other side of the event and that’s when we saw the carnage. There was just people. Just puddles of blood. Literally just puddles of blood,” Ure said.

[Photos: Deadly Las Vegas mass shooting]

Ure said he is a police officer from Texas and used his training to help get three of the wounded, to the hospital.

“They were saying that we’re going to die, and I still remember telling them, ‘Not tonight, not tonight. You’re going to be OK,’” Ure told Wilfon.

He said the three of them made it, but now we know so many others did not.

Two days later, people like Grace Voeltz wanted to stop at the shooting scene to pay their final respects to those they never knew.

“(I wanted) to pray for the survivors and also to pray for the ones who are in God’s hands right now," Voeltz said.

Wilfon said parts of Las Vegas still felt very much like Vegas throughout the day, but at the south of end of the Strip, it’s still a very solemn and somber place.

MEMORIAL FOR VICTIMS GROWS

In a city of lights, it’s candles that burned the brightest Tuesday evening, as a memorial of flowers and candles continues to grow, honoring the victims of the Las Vegas massacre

On the north end of the Vegas Strip, Kimberly Sinclair, like so many others, stopped to honor the victims.

“I stopped here because I loved those people with my whole heart, my whole soul,” Sinclair told Wilfon. “I’m praying that my sister will make it through this.”

Charlene Ragsdale went to the scene of the shooting. Wilfon watched as she left flowers.

“I had to come and pay my respects. I have friends that were down here. They’re fine. One of them was wounded, but he’s fine,” Ragsdale said. “I had to show my support to the community and show that Las Vegas loves the world.”

That support is lifting up people such as Chynna Zurflueh. She was enjoying Sunday night’s music festival when the bullets started flying.

“From the angle they were being shot, they were hitting the ground in front of us around our heads and other peoples’ heads,” Zurflueh told Wilfon. “We did see bullets coming out of the window and the lights from that.”

Zurflueh was still wearing her festival bracelet, as her personal show of support.

It was just one of the many signs that one horrific night won’t make the city of lights go dark.

“I said I loved you with all my heart and my soul. Now you’re in heaven with God. A much better life, forever and ever,” Sinclair said.

ESTABLISHING MOTIVE

For the first time, we’re getting a look at the weapons used in the Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 59 people and injured more than 500 people Sunday night.

Channel 2's sister-station, Boston 25, obtained exclusive photos from inside the shooter's hotel room.

Investigators say Stephen Paddock had 23 rifles and handguns with him. One photo clearly shows a gun on the floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel room.

Another photo shows numerous rounds of ammunition. A hammer that was presumably used to break the windows of the room is also seen beside the gun.

Officials say some of the ammunition was capable of slicing through police body armor.

Investigators say they also found ammonium nitrate, used for making explosives, inside Paddock’s car.

Local homeland security and counter terrorism expert Dr. Rodger Bates told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington that authorities will next search for a manifesto or any clues that could explain the motive behind the shootings.

[READ: Vegas shooter had interest in guns, video poker, real estate]

“Obviously it was a shock, but not unexpected,” Bates said.

Washington spoke Tuesday with the Clayton State University professor, who is a lone-wolf terrorism expert as well.

Bates said authorities will now follow evidence to learn what made the shooter, who appeared to have a clean record, carry out such a violent, deadly act.

“It could be a manifesto, it could be a suicide note. It could be a claim for a cause, some type of attempt to justify or frame the event,” Bates said.

[READ: Tennessee man died saving wife during Vegas mass shooting]

By all accounts, the mass shooting in Las Vegas appears to have been extremely detailed and planned out.

Bates told Washington that it looks like the shooter knew to reserve the specific hotel room that overlooked the venue.

He also said all evidence shows that Paddock knew what kind of guns to modify in order to kill and injure as many people as possible.

“It wasn’t erratic. It was paced, timed and fairly regular,” Bates said about the shooting. Bates said there’s typically something that triggers a lone-wolf terrorist.

[WATCH: Voice shaking, Jimmy Kimmel talks about the shooting in his hometown of Las Vegas]

He told Washington what set off the shooter in the Las Vegas case could help authorities better understand and classify the shooting.

“An act of terrorism involves violence perpetrated for a political purpose or agenda,” Bates said. “A mass shooting is more difficult to ascertain because we typically don’t have the motive or agenda.”

Still, whatever the classification, Bates said preventing another Las Vegas style tragedy will be a challenge.

“It’s very difficult to predict irrational behavior because it is irrational,” Bates said.

Bates said authorities could learn more details during their interviews with the shooter’s girlfriend, but he said even then, we still may never know why this shooting happened.

Cox Media Group