Hunt still on for shooter’s motive
Over four days, gunman Stephen Paddock assembled a formidable arsenal in his hotel room.
Paddock’s body was found amid a cache of 23 high-powered weapons, including a Kalashnikov and AR-15 assault rifles, and a vast stockpile of military-grade .223 calibre ammunition. At least two of the guns had been set up on tripods overlooking an open-air concert site, and more than one had been modified with a mechanical device to make it perform like an automatic rifle.
Police believe Paddock used 10 suitcases to smuggle the weapons up to the room, which he had checked into four days earlier.
Another arms cache including 19 weapons, several pounds of a commercial explosive, and thousands of rounds of ammunition was found at his home in Mesquite, 130 kilometres north east of Las Vegas along with traces of ammonium
GUNMAN HAD NO CLEAR LINKS TO ANY TERROR CELLS OR CRIMINAL GROUPS, SAY INVESTIGATORS
nitrate fertilizer, which can be used to make bombs, in his car.
Police are still trying to find a motive to explain why Paddock, 64, fired hundreds of bullets into crowds attending a concert on Sunday night.
The gunman had killed himself by the time armed police blasted their way into his 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel ending a killing spree that left 59 people dead and more than 500 injured, including 45 who are still in critical condition.
A photograph from the scene showed the gunman lying in a pool of blood from a head wound among dozens of spent cartridge casings. A revolver lay near the body.
Police also discovered a camera mounted inside his room which Paddock may have used to film himself committing the mass murder.
A police official told ABC News that Paddock had apparently erected the camera to record himself, but it was unclear whether it had been used.
Gun purchase records indicate Paddock legally bought more than two dozen firearms over a period of years.
Unlike the perpetrators of other mass shootings, Paddock appeared to have left no suicide note or rambling manifesto.
Clint Van Zandt, an FBI profiler, said usually after a mass shooting “people two or three days later say ‘Ah, now I understand, I know what was going on in this guy’s life.’ ”
But with Paddock “we don’t know,” he added.
Retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente speculated that there was “some sort of major trigger in his life — a great loss, a breakup, or maybe he just found out he has a terminal disease.”
Authorities said a sweep of law enforcement databases showed Paddock had no known run-ins with police. Paddock was the son of a bank robber who was once on the FBI’s most-wanted list, but investigators have turned up no clear links to any criminal enterprises or international terrorist groups — despite repeated claims by the Islamic State.
Among the questions investigators still have: How a former accountant with a penchant for gambling obtained a weapon that sounded to those on the ground like it could fire as an automatic, and how he was able to bring it and many other weapons into a Vegas hotel suite undetected.
Police are also expected to interview Paddock’s girlfriend Marilou Danley, after it emerged he wired US$100,000 to the Philippines, where she has family, last week.
Police said Danley, a former casino worker who was in the Philippines, was not believed to be involved in the atrocity. She was expected to return to the U.S. Tuesday.
Relatives said Paddock was worth at least US$2 million and appears to have been gambling particularly heavily in the weeks ahead of the massacre. Records kept by Las Vegas casinos show he engaged in 16 transactions of more than $10,000 in recent weeks. It was not clear if they represented wins or losses.
Public records offered no hint of financial distress or criminal history.
“No affiliation, no religion, no politics. He never cared about any of that stuff,” said his brother Eric Paddock. “He was a guy who had money. He went on cruises and gambled.”
Paddock had a business degree from Cal State Northridge. In the ‘90s and ’80s, he worked as a mail carrier and an IRS agent and held down an auditing job in the Defense Department, according to the government. He later worked for a defence contractor.
More than 22,000 people had been at the Route 91 Harvest festival, a three-day country music concert with grounds across the street from the Mandalay, when the shooting began about 10 p.m. Sunday.
A dozen investigators entered the festival site Tuesday.
“Shoes, baby strollers, chairs, sunglasses, purses. The whole field was just littered with things,” said Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who said it was like a “war zone.” ”There were bloodstains everywhere.“
The dead included a behavioural therapist who was soon to be married, a nursing assistant from Southern California, a commercial fisherman and an off-duty Las Vegas city police officer.
Four Canadians were among the dead. Tara Roe, who was 34 and lived in Okotoks, Alta., was there with her husband, Zach, for a weekend getaway, said her aunt, Val Rodgers. “They were there just to have a good time and to enjoy a concert.”
“She was a beautiful soul,” Rodgers said. “She was a wonderful mother and our family is going to miss her dearly.”
Roe worked with Calgary modelling agency Sophia Models International for 10 years, said owner Bill Giofu.
“She was always a friendly face when she came in to see us at the agency, a very caring spirit,” he said.
Lyndsay Perham’s childhood friend, Calla Medig, was also at the Route 91 Music Festival when she was shot. Going to Las Vegas for the festival had become an annual tradition for the country music fan, Perham said.
“She was a very loyal friend. We always had fun together,” said Perham, who grew up with Medig in the Rocky Mountain town of Jasper, Alta. “We had a very tight-knit group of girls and we just did everything together growing up.”
Medig, 28, was with her best friend when she was shot, Perham said. The friend managed to get Medig to a hospital, where she died.
Another victim was Jessica Klymchuk, a mother of four who lived in the northwestern Alberta town of Valleyview, where she worked as an educational assistant, librarian and bus driver at an area Catholic school.
Jordan McIldoon, another victim, from Maple Ridge, B.C., would have turned 24 on Friday and was a month shy of completing a course to qualify as a heavy-duty mechanic.
HE WAS BLEEDING THROUGH THE MOUTH, BLEEDING PROFUSELY, SHE KNEW HE WAS DYING. HE TOLD HER HE LOVED HER. LAURIE COULD TELL HE WAS SLIPPING. SHE TOLD HIM SHE LOVED HIM AND SHE WOULD SEE HIM IN HEAVEN. SHE WAS A WONDERFUL MOTHER AND OUR FAMILY IS GOING TO MISS HER DEARLY.