Las Vegas gunman’s girlfriend returns to US
Police say shooter’s motive remains elusive
LAS VEGAS: The Las Vegas gunman’s girlfriend, back in the United States after a trip abroad, will be at the centre of the investigation into the shooting deaths of 59 people as authorities try to determine why a man with no known record of violence or crime would open fire on a concert crowd from a high-rise hotel.
Stephen Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, 62, who was in the Philippines at the time of the shooting, was met by FBI agents at the airport in Los Angeles late on Tuesday night, according to a law enforcement official.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who has called Ms Danley a “person of interest’’ in the attack, said that “we anticipate some information from her shortly”, and said he is “absolutely” confident authorities will find out what set off Paddock, a 64-year-old high-stakes gambler and retired accountant who killed himself before police stormed his 32nd-floor room.
Ms Danley first arrived in the Philippines on Sept 15, according to immigration documents there. She departed on Sept 22 then returned three days later on a flight from Hong Kong. She was travelling on an Australian passport.
Philippines immigration bureau spokeswoman Antonette Mangrobang said authorities there had been working with US officials.
“From the very beginning, we have been providing them necessary information that would aid their investigation,’’ Ms Mangrobang said.
Paddock transferred US$100,000 (3.3 million baht) to the Philippines in the days before the shooting, a US official said on condition of anonymity.
Investigators are still trying to trace that money and also looking into a least a dozen financial reports over the past several weeks that said Paddock sometimes gambled more than $10,000 per day, the official said.
As for what may have set Paddock off, 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”.
Mr Clemente said a “psychological autopsy” may be necessary to try to establish the motive. If the suicide didn’t destroy Paddock’s brain, experts may even find a neurological disorder or malformation, he said.
He said there could be a genetic component to the slaughter: Paddock’s father was a bank robber who was on the FBI’s mostwanted list in the 1960s and was diagnosed a psychopath. “The genetics load the gun, personality and psychology aim it, and experiences pull the trigger, typically,” Mr 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 held down a job in an auditing division of the Defence Department, according to the government. He later worked for a defence contractor.
He had no known criminal record, and public records showed no signs of financial troubles.
Nevada’s Gaming Control Board said it will pass along records compiled on Paddock and his girlfriend to investigators.
His brother, Eric Paddock, said he was at a loss to explain the massacre.
“No affiliation, no religion, no politics. He never cared about any of that stuff,” he said outside his Florida home.
Eric Paddock said his brother did show a confrontational side at times: He apparently hated cigarette smoke so much that he carried around a cigar and blew smoke in people’s faces when they lit up around him.
Mr Lombardo said 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.”
US President Donald Trump was to arrive in Las Vegas after press time yesterday to meet public officials, first responders and some of the 527 people injured in the attack. At least 45 patients at two hospitals remained in critical condition.
All but three of the dead had been identified by Tuesday afternoon, Mr Lombardo said.
Some investigators turned their focus on Tuesday from the shooter’s perch to the festival grounds where his victims fell.
A dozen investigators, most in FBI jackets and all wearing blue booties to avoid contaminating the scene, documented evidence at the site where gunfire 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 Adam Laxalt after touring the site on Monday. “There were bloodstains everywhere.’’
While Paddock’s motive has proved elusive, investigators have found no shortage of evidence of how Paddock carried out the elaborate attack.
He planned the massacre so meticulously that he even set up cameras inside the peephole of his high-rise hotel room and on a service cart outside his door, apparently to spot anyone coming for him, authorities said.
Investigators also found a computer and 23 guns with him at the hotel, along with 12 “bump stock” devices that can enable a rifle to fire continuously, like an automatic weapon, authorities said.
Nineteen more guns were found at Paddock’s Mesquite home and seven at his Reno house.
Authorities released police body camera video that showed the chaos of the attack as officers tried to figure out the location of the shooter and shuttle people to safety.
Amid sirens and volleys of gunfire, people yelled “they’re shooting right at us” while officers shouted “go that way!”.
Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said the shooting spanned between nine and 11 minutes.
The cameras Paddock set up at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino were part of his extensive preparations that included stockpiling nearly two dozen guns in his room before opening fire on the concertgoers below.
Mr McMahill said the cameras included one in the peephole and two placed in the hallway.
“I anticipate he was looking for anybody coming to take him into custody,’’ Mr Lombardo said.
During the Sunday night rampage, a hotel security guard who approached the room was shot through the door and wounded in the leg.
“The fact that he had the type of weaponry and amount of weaponry in that room, it was preplanned extensively,” the sheriff said, “and I’m pretty sure he evaluated everything that he did and his actions, which is troublesome”.