Las Vegas mass killer ‘had to have help at some point’ say police
POLICE believe the Las Vegas gunman who killed 58 concert-goers intended to massacre even more people with the help of a mystery accomplice.
Detectives are convinced Stephen Paddock, 64, was foiled before he was able to trigger the second part of his plot to cause still more bloodshed with the use of home-made bombs and an arsenal of guns.
Thousands of people attended a vigil for two of Paddock’s victims in Manhattan Beach, California, last night. The memorial was for local residents Rachael Parker, 33, a police department records technician, and special-education teacher Sandy Casey, 35.
Meanwhile, L as Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who is leading the shooting probe, said that evidence showed Paddock planned to escape alive from his sniper’s nest on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. And he insisted that the retired accountant was needed help to pull off such an elaborate plan.
The sheriff refused to explain why he was so certain Paddock thought he could make a successful getaway, but he said the gunman would have to have been a “superhero” to have planned and carried out the atrocity by himself.
“Look at the weapon obtaining, the amounts of Tannerite available,” he said referring to the 47 weapons found in Paddock’s hotel room and in two homes he owned in Nevada, and two 50-pound tins of the explosive Tannerite found in his car. “Do you think this was accomplished all on his own, face value? You gotta make the assumption he had to have help at some point.”
Investigators appear to have ruled out Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who flew back to the US from the Philippines on Tuesday saying she wanted to clear her name.
“I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man,” the 62-year-old said in a statement read by her lawyer. “He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.”
The offic ial number of injured has been reduced to 489 from 527. Among those recovering is mechanic Braden Matejka, who was hit by a bullet while attending the festival with girlfriend Amanda Homulos.
A bullet grazed his head. “He was traumatised but thankful to be talking,” his brother Brock said.
Meanwhile, a British firefighter today told how he rushed to help victims of the Las Vegas shooting.
Tony Dumbleton, who works for Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service, was on holiday with his wife Lucy. He heard the shooting while out walking and ran to the scene,
He said: “One man I found had been shot in the shoulder. I took him back to the MGM where hotel paramedics had set up a triage area.
“I have first aid training and helped this man and then there was another also who had been shot through the shoulder. There was also another who had been shot straight through his ankle. It was horrendous.”