Vegas shooter’s secret life puzzles probers
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Those seeking to know the motive of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock have had little more to chase than hints and shadows.
Paddock led such a low-key, private life that no one seemed to know him well, and those who did had no sense he was capable of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
Where other mass killers have left behind a trail of plain-sight clues that help investigators quickly understand what drove them to violence, Paddock, 64, had nearly no close friends, social media presence or other clear connections to the broader world.
Even the No. 2 official in the FBI said Wednesday he was surprised investigators have not uncovered more about why a man with no obvious criminal record would cause so much bloodshed.
”There’s all kinds of things that surprise us in each one of these events. That’s the one in this one, and we are not there yet. We have a lot of work to do,” FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said.
Working with what little they know, investigators have zeroed in on a weaponbuying binge Paddock went on one year before he gunned down 58 people on Sunday at a country music festival from a 32nd-floor room at the Mandalay Bay hotel before killing himself.
Investigators wonder if he had some sort of mental break at the time that drove him to start making plans for mass murder.
They also know he rented an apartment in a Las Vegas highrise over another music festival the weekend before the massacre but don’t know why.
They know he was a major gambler and are looking at related records, though even in public casinos, he played the private game of video poker.
They know he had a plan to survive the shooting and try to escape, though would not say how.
”This individual and this attack didn’t leave the sort of immediately accessible thumbprints that you find on some mass casualty attacks,” McCabe said.
“Putting aside the somewhat dubious claims of responsibility that we see in each one of these instances, we look for actual indicators of affiliation, of motive, of intent, and so far we’re not there. We don’t have those sort of indicators,” he said.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference on Wednesday night that Paddock must have had some help along the way given the huge arsenal found in his car, and his meticulous plan, but they don’t know who that might be.
Analyzing Paddock’s computer, cellphone and other electronic devices, investigators have found no obvious ideological motive, no clear connection to extremists or activist groups or outward display of mental illness.
Paddock wasn’t able to move into his Mandalay hotel room until Saturday, said a person who was not authorized to speak publicly and disclosed the information to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The room, which goes for $590 a night, was given to Paddock for free because he was a good customer who wagered tens of thousands of dollars each time he visited the casino, the person said.
Authorities are looking for hints in those details of the kind of life he lived, said David Gomez, a former FBI national security and criminal profiler.
”We may never know to 100 percent certainty,” he said. “But we will find out.”