GUNMAN PLANNED ACT METICULOUSLY
Shooter set up cameras inside, outside room; girlfriend questioned.
The Las Vegas gunman LASVEGAS— planned his massacre so meticulously that he even set up cameras inside his high-rise hotel room and on a service cart outside his door, apparently to spot anyone coming for him, the sheriffff said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, SheriffffffffJosephLombardo named the gunman’s girlfriend as a “person of interest” and said the FBI is bringing her back to the U.S. for questioning as investigators try to determinewhy StephenPaddock killed 59 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Investigators have been speaking with Marilou Danley, who is traveling in the Philippines, and “we anticipate some information fromher shortly,” Lombardosaid.
Lombardo said he is “absolutely” confifident authoritieswill
fifind out what set offff Paddock, a
64-year-old high- stakes gambler and retired accountant who killed himself before police stormedhis 32nd- flfloor room.
The cameras Paddock set up at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino were part of the extensive preparations that included stockpiling nearly twodozenguns beforeopeningfifire fromhis perchonthe closing night of a three-day countrymusic festival below.
“I anticipate he was looking for anybody coming to take himintocustody,” Lombardo said.
During the Sunday night rampage, a hotel security guard who approached the room was shot through the doorandwoundedin the leg.
“The fact that he had the type of weaponry and amount of weaponry in that room, it was preplanned extensively,” the sheriffffsaid, “and I’mpretty sure he evaluated everything that he did and his actions, which is troublesome.”
Lomba rd o sa i d the investigation is proceeding cautiously in case criminal charges are warranted against someone else.
“This investigation is not ended with the demise of Mr. Paddock,” the sheriff said. “Did this person get radicalized unbeknownst to us? And we want to identify that source.”
In addition to the cameras, investigators found a computer and 23 gunswith him at the hotel, alongwith “bump stock” devices that can enable a riflfle to fifire continuously, like an automatic weapon, authorities said. Nineteen more guns were found at Paddock’sMesquite home and seven at his Reno house.
Videoshotoutside thebroken door of the roomshow an assault-style riflfle with a scope on a bipod. The sheriffff said an internal investigation has been launched to find out how that footage was obtained.
Some investigators turned their focusTuesday fromthe shooter’s perch to the festival grounds where his victims fell.
A dozen investigators, most in FBI jackets and all wearing bluebooties toavoid contaminating the scene, documented evidence at the sitewhere gunfifire rained down and country music gave way to screams of pain and terror.
“Shoes, baby strollers, chairs, sunglasses, purses. The whole field was just littered with things,” said Nevada Attorney General AdamLaxalt, whosaiditwas like a “war zone.” “There were bloodstains everywhere.”
More than 500 people were injured in the rampage, some by gunfifire, some during the chaotic escape. At least 45 patients at two hospitals remained in critical condition. All but three of the dead had been identifified by Tuesday afternoon, Lombardo said.
As for what may have set Paddock offffffffffff, retired FBI profiler Jim Clemente speculated that there was “some sort of major trigger in his life — a great loss, a breakup, or maybe he just found out he has a terminal disease.”
Clemente said a “psychological autopsy” may be necessary to try to establish the motive for the attack. If the suicide didn’t destroy Paddock’s brain, experts may even fifind a neurological disorder or malformation, he said.
He said there could even be a genetic component to the slaughter: Paddock’s father was a bank robber who was on the FBI’smostwanted list in the 1960s and wasdiagnoseda psychopath.
“Thegeneticsloadthegun, personality and psychology aim it, and experiences pull the trigger, typically,” Clemente said.
Paddock had a business degree from Cal State Northridge. In the 1970s and ’80s, he worked as a mail carrier and an IRS agent and helddowninanauditing division of the Defense Department, according to the government. Helaterworkedfor a defense contractor.
Hehadnoknowncriminal record, and public records showed no signs of fifinancial troubles, though hewas said to be a big gambler.
Nevada’s Gaming Control Board said itwill pass along records compiled on Paddock and his girlfriend to investigators.
“No affiffiliation, noreligion, no politics. He never cared about any of that stuffffffffffff,” his brother, Eric Paddock, said outside his Florida home. He said he was at a loss to explain the massacre.
The FBI discounted the possibility of international terrorismearlyon, evenafter the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.