Las Vegas gunman transferred $100,000 to Philippines

Preparations for attack also included setting up cameras inside and outside his hotel room

LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas gunman transferred $100,000 overseas in the days before the attack and planned his massacre so meticulously that he even set up cameras inside his hotel room and on a service cart outside his door, apparently to spot anyone coming for him, the sheriff said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo named the man’s girlfriend as a “person of interest” and said the FBI is bringing her back to the U.S. for questioning as investigators try to determine why Stephen Paddock killed 59 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Investigators have been speaking with Marilou Danley, who is travelling in the Philippines, and “we anticipate some information from her shortly,” Lombardo said.

Lombardo said he is “absolutely” confident authorities will find out what set off Paddock, a 64-year-old high-stakes gambler and retired accountant who killed himself before police stormed his 32nd-floor room.

Paddock transferred $100,000 to the Philippines in the days before the shooting, a U.S. official briefed by law enforcement but not authorized to speak publicly because of the continuing investigation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Investigators are still trying to trace that money and also looking into a least a dozen reports over the past several weeks that said Paddock gambled more than $10,000 per day, the official said.

The cameras Paddock set up at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino were part of the extensive preparations that included stockpiling two dozen guns before opening fire from his perch on the closing night of a country music festival below.

During the Sunday night rampage, a hotel security guard who approached the room was shot through the door and wounded in the leg.

“The fact that he had the type of weaponry and amount of weaponry in that room, it was preplanned extensively,” the sheriff said, “and I’m pretty sure he evaluated everything that he did and his actions, which is troublesome.”

Lombardo said the investigation is proceeding cautiously in case criminal charges are warranted against someone else.

In addition to the cameras, investigators found a computer and 23 guns with him at the hotel, along with “bump stock” devices that can enable a rifle to fire continuously, like an automatic weapon, authorities said. Nineteen more guns were found at Paddock’s Mesquite home and seven at his Reno house.

Some investigators turned their focus Tuesday from the shooter’s perch to the festival grounds where his victims fell.

A dozen investigators, most in FBI jackets and all wearing blue booties to avoid contaminating the scene, documented evidence at the site where gunfire rained down and country music gave way to screams of pain and terror.

More than 500 people were injured, some by gunfire, some during the chaotic escape. At least 45 remained in critical condition.

As for what may have set Paddock off, 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.”

Clemente said a “psychological autopsy” may be necessary to try to establish the motive for the attack. If the suicide didn’t destroy Paddock’s brain, experts may even find a neurological disorder, he said.

He said there could even be a genetic component to the slaughter: Paddock’s father was a bank robber who was on the FBI’s most-wanted list in the 1960s and was diagnosed a psychopath.

“The genetics load the gun, personality and psychology aim it, and experiences pull the trigger, typically,” Clemente said.