VEGAS TRAGEDY ROOM CLUES TO AN EVIL PLAN
CRIME scene photos from inside Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s Mandalay Bay lair reveal his meticulous planning for the massacre.
Not only had he stockpiled 23 guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, he also set up cameras inside his 32nd floor room, in the door’s peephole, and on a caterer’s cart in the hallway so he could see police approaching.
“I anticipate he was looking for anybody coming to take him into custody,” Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said.
A hotel security guard who approached the room was shot in the leg. When police arrived in force, Paddock shot himself through the mouth before they could arrest him.
The otherwise unremarkable former accountant, mailman and compulsive gambler, 64, had spent nine minutes raining hundreds of bullets on a crowd of 22,000 at an outdoor country music festival. The deadliest mass shooting in US history killed 59 and injured almost 600. Paddock had checked into his suite overlooking the Strip last Thursday, and over the next few days moved in more than a dozen suitcases packed with his armoury. It included 12 semiautomatic rifles he had converted into fully automatic weapons using a device called a bump stock. At least two of the rifles had a bipod attached.
“The fact that he had the type of weaponry and amount of weaponry in that room, it was pre-planned extensively,” Sheriff Lombardo said.
“I’m pretty sure he evaluated everything that he did and his actions, which is troublesome.”
Police yesterday vowed to uncover his motive, possibly within “the next 48 hours”.
Sheriff Lombardo said the investigation was proceeding cautiously in case criminal charges were warranted against someone else.
“This investigation is not ended with the demise of Mr Paddock,” he said. “Did this person get radicalised unbeknownst to us? And we want to identify that source.”
A series of high-value bets over recent weeks led to speculation Paddock – a “high-roller” at many Nevada casinos — may have been driven by significant losses.
Law enforcement officials revealed he had bet $US160,000 ($205,000) in the past few weeks at Las Vegas.
There has been no insight from acquaintances into what might have driven the retiree’s actions. His neighbours in The gunman had 23 guns in his suite, and the remnants of his shooting spree are clear to see, with bullet casings and full clips strewn across the floor. He repositioned furniture to hold his deadly arsenal and had set up guns throughout the room. Mesquite, 130km northeast of Vegas, were still in shock yesterday that the world’s media had descended on their village.
Paddock and long-term Australian girlfriend Marilou Danley were known as extremely private, keeping to themselves.
“All those weapons. I can’t believe that they were just over there,” said Rodney Swaningson, who lives four houses away.