Shooter scouted other attack locations
CHICAGO: Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock had booked a hotel room here during the hugely-popular Lollapalooza music festival, it emerged on Thursday, raising the prospect he had been planning a large-scale attack for months.
The Blackstone hotel, with rooms facing a downtown city park where the festival was held, said a man of the same name had a reservation there in August — just as hundreds of thousands were attending the four-day outdoor concert series, including Malia Obama, daughter of the former president.
“There was a reservation under the name Stephen Paddock,” said Blackstone spokesman Emmy Carragher.
“We have not confirmed whether that is the same Stephen Paddock, and we’re working with the authorities.”
Paddock did not check in for his reservation, she said.
United States media reported that searches of the Las Vegas gunman’s communications and electronic equipment found that he had scouted locations in both Chicago and Boston.
NBC News reported that he had specifically researched the Lollapalooza festival. He had also conducted Internet searches for the Fenway Park baseball stadium and the Boston Center for the Arts, a small performance venue, the Boston Globe reported.
The revelations raised the chilling prospect that Paddock had been planning an attack for at least two months before he launched Sunday’s assault.
In Las Vegas, hundreds of Las Vegas police and their families paid an emotional, candle-lit farewell on Thursday night to the only officer among the 58 people killed in last weekend’s shooting rampage.
Charleston Hartfield, 34, a married father of two, was off duty and attending the big country music festival.
Vegas officials have also begun releasing bodies, but it could be months before families learn exactly how their loved ones died, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said on Thursday.
Fudenberg said his staff had worked day and night to notify families of those killed.
“This has been very, very difficult,” Fudenberg said.
Employees have endeavored to speak with as many as five family members per hour in recent days, he said. . Agencies