Gunman eyed other music events
UNITED STATES: Police are examining reports that the gunman who fired on a country music festival in Las Vegas also booked rooms in a Chicago hotel overlooking the massive Lollapalooza music festival, the latest new line of inquiry as investigators try to retrace the killer’s steps in the days and weeks before the attack.
TMZ reported that Stephen Paddock, 64, booked two rooms facing Grant Park, where Lollapalooza was held from August 3-6, at the Blackstone Hotel, an upscale downtown hotel across the street, but did not show up.
‘‘We can confirm that a reservation was made under the name Stephen Paddock. However, authorities have not confirmed that this is the same person as the Las Vegas shooter,’’ said hotel spokeswoman Emmy Carragher, adding that the guest never arrived. ‘‘We are cooperating with the authorities on this matter.’’
Lollapalooza draws hundreds of thousands of music fans every year, and this summer the attendees included Malia Obama, daughter of former US president Barack Obama.
The news came after officials revealed that Paddock had also booked an Airbnb apartment in a condominium overlooking the Life Is Beautiful music festival in Las Vegas in September, leading investigators to gather video footage from the building.
Both festivals featured New Zealand singer Lorde.
‘‘Was he doing pre-surveillance? We don’t know yet,’’ Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. Paddock ultimately shot into a crowd of more than 21,000 country music fans at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip from a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino hotel. The attack left 58 victims dead and nearly 500 people wounded before Paddock killed himself.
Paddock also opened fire at two large jet fuel storage tanks a block away from the festival grounds, but they did not ignite, the Las Vegas Review-journal reported.
Officials are still trying to understand what happened during the shooting.
Clark County Fire Chief Greg Cassell said yesterday the fire alarms at the Mandalay Bay were triggered during the shooting, but he did not know whether this was caused by gun smoke, a person pulling the alarm or some other aspect of the police response.
Cassell said more than 32 calls of gunshot victims at locations around the Las Vegas Strip came in after the shootings. The scattered locations of the calls contributed to the sense that other shooters could be active, and complicated the response.
Cassell said he wondered at the time: ‘‘What is going on in our town? Is this a single event or are we now under a Mumbai-style attack where we’ve got multiple things going on?’’
Meanwhile, as lawmakers in Washington once again took up the issue of gun regulation, the National Rifle Association yesterday said it would support a government crackdown on ‘‘bump stock’’ accessories that modify semiautomatic guns to fire at nearly fully automatic speed. Investigators have said that Paddock had 12 such devices fitted to the weapons he amassed to mount his attack.
‘‘The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semiautomatic rifles to function like fully automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations,’’ the gun advocacy powerhouse said in its statement, which asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to evaluate whether such devices were legal under federal law.
The NRA’S announcement came as some Republican lawmakers signalled that they would be open to a ban on such devices. - LA Times