Cops hunt for motives, clues
LAS VEGAS Shooter had penchant for guns, his father was known fugitive bank robber
LAS VEGAS: Police sought clues on Tuesday to explain why a retiree with a penchant for gambling but no criminal record set up a sniper’s nest in a high-rise Las Vegas hotel and poured gunfire onto a concert below, slaying dozens of people before killing himself.
The Sunday night shooting spree from a 32nd-floor window of the Mandalay Bay hotel, on the Las Vegas Strip, killed at least 59 people before the gunman turned a weapon on himself. More than 500 were injured, some trampled, in the deadliest mass shooting in US history.
The gunman, identified as Stephen Paddock, 64, left no immediate hint of his motive for the arsenal of high-powered weaponry he amassed, including 34 guns, or the carnage he inflicted on a crowd of 22,000 attending an outdoor country music festival.
Paddock was not known to have served in the military, or to have suffered from a history of mental illness or to have registered any inkling of social disaffection, political discontent or radical views on social media.
US officials also discounted a claim of responsibility by the militant Islamic State group.
“We have determined to this point no connection with an international terrorist group,” Aaron Rouse, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation field office in Las
LAW ENFORCEMENT AND FAMILY MEMBERS COULD NOT EXPLAIN WHAT LED THE ACCOUNTANT TO GO ON A RAMPAGE
Vegas, told reporters on Monday.
Police said they believed Paddock acted alone but were at a loss to explain what might have precipitated it.
“We have no idea what his belief system was,” Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters. “I can’t get into the mind of a psychopath.”
Paddock had a penchant for guns, high-limit video poker and real estate deals. His father was a notorious fugitive bank robber. He had a recent live-in girlfriend and two ex-wives and seemed to live a comfortable life in a Nevada retirement community, investigators have uncovered so far.
His life is the subject of a sprawling investigation into what drove him to show up at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino with at least 10 suitcases filled with guns and open fire.
Law enforcement and family members could not explain what would motivate a one-time accountant with no known criminal record to inflict so much carnage.
Las Vegas police said he had 23 guns at the hotel, including semiautomatic rifles, and 19 at his home along with thousands of rounds of ammunition.