‘Kind’ gunman preparing for split, says girlfriend
UNITED STATES: The girlfriend of the Las Vegas gunman says she thought her ’’kind, caring, quiet’’ partner was trying to break up with her when he bought her a plane ticket to the Philippines two weeks ago and wired her US$127,000 to buy a house in her home country.
Marilou Danley’s boyfriend Stephen Paddock, a retired accountant and multimillionaire gambler, killed 58 people and injured more than 500 when he fired on a crowd at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival from his 32nd-floor room at the Mandalay Bay hotel. He had 47 guns, 33 of which were accumulated over the last year, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said.
Danley made her first public comments yesterday via a statement read out by her lawyer, Matt Lombard, outside the FBI’S offices in Los Angeles.
‘‘I am devastated by the deaths and injuries that have occurred, and my prayers go out to the victims and their families and all those who have been hurt by these awful events,’’ the statement said.
‘‘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.
‘‘A little more than two weeks ago, Stephen told me that he found a cheap ticket for me to the Philippines and that he wanted me to take a trip home to see my family. Like all Filipinos abroad, I was excited to go home and see family and friends.
‘‘While there, he wired me money which he said was for me to buy a house for me and my family. I was grateful, but honestly, I was worried that first the unexpected trip home and then the money was a way of breaking up with me. It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone.’’
‘‘I voluntarily flew back to America because I knew that the FBI and the Las Vegas Police Department wanted to talk to me, and I wanted to talk to them. I will co-operate fully with their investigation. Anything that I can do to help ease the suffering, I will do.’’
Authorities were looking at whether Paddock had any accomplices, said Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who is leading the investigation. He said he found it hard to believe that the arsenal of weapons, ammunition and explosives recovered by police could have been assembled by Paddock on his own over ‘‘decades’’.
Lombardo said the attack was the obvious outcome of meticulous planning. Police also said they had evidence suggesting that Paddock planned to survive after carrying out the worst mass shooting in modern US history. - Fairfax, AP