Gunman in Vegas seemed to have each step planned
Shooter placed cameras in hotel to watch police
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Investigators trying to determine what sparked the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history have found the massacre to be the work of a sophisticated planner with the means and desire to inflict unprecedented carnage.
But on the second full day after Stephen Paddock smashed out the windows of a hotel suite on the Las Vegas Strip and opened fire on a crowd of concert- goers, authorities still were trying to understand what drove him to such evil.
Several new details emerged Tuesday about Paddock, a 64-year-old retired accountant, and how he worked methodically to thwart law enforcement as he killed scores
of people and injured hundreds.
As he fired round after round during an 11-minute stretch from a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Paddock used video cameras to keep an eye out for police storming his hotel room, according to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
Paddock hid one camera in the peephole of his suite and two more in the hall, at least one of them disguised on a service cart, authorities said. At one point, he shot numerous rounds through the door, wounding a security guard. Paddock eventually put a gun into his mouth and pulled the trigger as SWAT officers closed in. They found him with blood pooling behind his head and around the empty shell casings that littered the carpet, a handgun near his body.
“It was preplanned, extensively, and I’m pretty sure that he evaluated everything that he did in his actions, which is troublesome,” Lombardo said.
The sheriff said investigators were “making progress” on determining a motive, but answers remained elusive. There were few clues in Paddock’s background.
Neighbors in several states where Paddock owned homes in retirement communities described him as surly, unfriendly and standoffish. Paddock was the son of a bank robber who was once on the FBI’s most-wanted list and whom authorities described at the time as a “psychopath,” but Paddock’s brother said their father was not involved in their lives when they were children.
Until carrying out the massacre Sunday night, which left 59 dead and over 500 injured, Paddock had no criminal history himself. Despite repeated claims by Islamic State to the contrary, he also had no ties to international terror groups, authorities said. He had done some government work during his career, as a letter carrier for the Postal Service, an agent for the Internal Revenue Service and an auditor for the federal government’s Defense Contract Audit Agency in the late 1970s and 1980s. He was divorced twice and recently had been dating a woman from the Philippines who has Australian citizenship. He was known to gamble routinely and extensively.
Some public officials seemed to suggest Paddock’s mind was troubled, though there were no immediate indications that he had been diagnosed with a mental illness or was anything other than fully aware of what he was doing.
“A normal person would not cause this type of harm to innocent people,” said Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev. “Clearly, there was something wrong with this man.”
People close to the investigation also said that in the weeks before the attack, Paddock transferred a large amount of money — close to $100,000 — to someone in the Philippines, possibly his girlfriend. The significance of that development was not immediately clear, though investigators said they were looking into Paddock’s finances and his interest in high-stakes gambling.
The girlfriend, Marilou Danley, returned to the United States from the Philippines on Tuesday and was met by federal agents at the airport, according to The Associated Press. Investigators considered her a “person of interest,” Lombardo said. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said that police are eager to talk to her, because Paddock “doesn’t meet any profiles” and the “best lead is through this girlfriend.”
At his home in Orlando, Eric Paddock, Stephen Paddock’s brother, said he doubts Danley had any prior knowledge of the attack and speculated that Stephen may have been trying to quietly ensure her financial stability. Stephen Paddock loved and doted on his girlfriend, whom he had met when she was a hostess at a casino, Eric Paddock said. The couple often gambled side by side.
“He manipulated her to be as far away from here and safe when he committed this,” Eric Paddock said. “The people he loved he took care of, and as he was descending into hell he took care of her.”
Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg on Tuesday evening clarified that Paddock was among the 59 slain in the incident; previously, authorities had said he wasn’t.
Undersheriff Kevin McMahill warned that the number of dead and injured could fluctuate as the investigation progresses.
“The answer that the coroner provided you is the most recent, relevant number that we have,” McMahill said.
The shooting reignited the debate on Capitol Hill and across the country about whether lawmakers should impose new restrictions on firearms. Several Democrats used the massacre to push for new restrictions, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., asserted Tuesday that Republican leaders have no plans to advance a bill, which passed a House committee last month, that would make it easier to buy gun silencers.
Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump said, “We’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”