Somber anniversary in Las Vegas
What’s known about attack that left 58 dead, hundreds injured
Las Vegas — Las Vegas is marking the anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Fifty-eight people died, 413 were wounded and police say at least 456 were injured fleeing bullets that a gambler-turned-gunman rained down late Oct. 1, 2017, from the Mandalay Bay casino-resort into an outdoor concert crowd on the Las Vegas Strip. He then killed himself, taking the reasons for his rampage with him.
Here’s where some of the many elements of the Las Vegas shooting stand today:
Official findings
After seven months, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo declared the Las Vegas police investigation complete and on Aug. 3 issued a report that does not find a motive for the shooting.
Lombardo said authorities are confident the shooter acted alone and was not part of a terrorist plot.
An FBI report incorporating a behavioral analysis of shooter Stephen Paddock is expected by year’s end.
A report issued Aug. 24 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others found local police and fire departments received more than 1,500 calls within two hours of the shooting and responded to 16 major false reports.
One said there were 20 hostages held at the New York-New York casino-resort. Others reported a hotel fire and active shooters at other casinos and McCarran International Airport.
The FEMA report made 72 observations and recommendations for responding to mass violence incidents.
The gunman
Paddock, 64, was a retired postal service worker, accountant, real estate investor, private pilot and high-limit video poker player who earned casino perks gambling tens of thousands of dollars at a time.
He sold properties in California, Florida, Nevada and Texas, and had homes in Reno and the southern Nevada resort town of Mesquite, about 80 miles from Las Vegas.
His bank robber father was once on the FBI Most Wanted list. His brother, Eric Paddock, called him the “king of microaggression” — narcissistic, detail-oriented and maybe bored enough with life to plan an attack that would make him famous.
Stephen Paddock told a Reno car salesman months before the shooting that he was depressed and had relationship troubles. He told friends and relatives he always felt ill and in pain. His doctor offered him antidepressants but told police Paddock accepted only a prescription for anxiety medication.
His girlfriend
Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, told investigators he became distant before he sent her to the Philippines two weeks before the shooting. Police say he wired her $150,000 there to buy a house.
Danley, a former Reno casino worker, returned to the U.S. after the shooting and was interviewed several times by authorities. She was never charged with a crime.
The only person to face a charge is Douglas Haig, an Arizona man who acknowledged selling bullets to Paddock.
Haig has entered a not-guilty plea to a federal charge of illegally manufacturing ammunition. A trial date has not been set.
Shooter’s arsenal
Police found 23 assault-style rifles, one handgun and thousands of rounds of unspent ammunition in the gunman’s hotel suite and an adjoining room.
More than half the rifles were modified with rapid-fire devices called bump stocks . Many were fitted with bipods for stability, target scopes and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Police and the FBI found explosives and ammunition in Paddock’s car at the Mandalay Bay, 18 weapons at his Mesquite home and seven weapons at his Reno home.
Authorities determined all the weapons were legally purchased, most within the previous year.