Arms dealer indicted for ammo sold to Las Vegas shooter

LOS ANGELES: An Arizona man was charged with making armour-piercing ammunition without a licence and selling it to the Las Vegas gunman whose October killing spree left 58 concert-goers dead.

Stephen Paddock, 64, killed himself after the rampage carried out from his hotel suite on Las Vegas’ famed Strip on Oct 1 – the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history.

Douglas Haig, 55, is charged with one count of conspiracy to manufacture and sell armorpiercing ammunition and was released on bail pending a preliminary hearing on Feb 15 in Phoenix.

He faces the maximum penalty of five years in prison, and possibly a US$250,000 fine, if convicted.

Paddock allegedly came to Haig’s home in Mesa, on the outskirts of Phoenix, in September last year to buy ammunition.

Haig had previously operated ‘Specialised Military Ammunition ,’ an Internet business selling armour-piercing bullets, some of them high explosive, according to a statement from US Attorney Dayle Elieson of Nevada.

Records show he had done business in Nevada, Texas, Virginia, Wyoming and South Carolina despite having no license to manufacture armour-piercing ammunition.

Haig told investigators he reloads ammunition but does not offer reloaded cartridges for sale, and none of the rounds recovered in Las Vegas crime scenes would have tool marks consistent with his reloading equipment.

But Elieson said forensic examiners had recovered reloaded, unfired 308 caliber cartridges in the shooter’s hotel rooms bearing Haig’s fingerprints.

Armour-piercing ammunition recovered inside the shooter’s rooms had tool marks consistent with Haig’s reloading equipment, the statement added.