‘I had no idea he was planning violence’

> Girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter says he was a ‘quiet, caring man’

LAS VEGAS: The girlfriend of the Las Vegas shooter said on Wednesday she had no idea he was planning the attack and described her boyfriend as a “quiet, caring man” as President Donald Trump declared the US a nation in mourning.

In her first public comments over the shooting at a country music concert that left 58 dead and 489 wounded, Marilou Danley ( pix) said she had hoped for a quiet future with Stephen Paddock.

In Las Vegas, Trump visited with survivors and first responders, eulogising parents and spouses who “used their own bodies to protect their loved ones” from the onslaught.

He toured the Las Vegas Police Department Command Centre and the city’s University Medical Centre, where he met, among others, officer Tyler Peterson who was injured while responding to the shooting.

“In the months ahead, we will all have to wrestle with the horror that unfolded this week. But we will struggle through it together,” the president said.

Air Force One touched down at McCarran International Airport as the FBI was questioning Danley for clues to what drove Paddock to mass murder.

The 62-year-old returned to the US from her native Philippines late on Tuesday and was met by FBI agents.

In a statement read by her attorney Matthew Lombard, she said she had no hint of what was to come: “I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man.”

“I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together with him.”

“He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.”

Danley added that two weeks ago, Paddock had told her he found a cheap plane ticket for her to visit family in the Philippines and had wired her money to purchase a house while she was there.

She said she became concerned at that point, thinking he wanted to break up.

“It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone,” said Danley, an Australian citizen who moved to the US 20 years ago to work on the casino strip.

Authorities have been at a loss as to how a 64-year-old gambler and retired accountant hauled a cache of weapons to his hotel room and launched an assault. – AFP

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