RECOILING AT BUMP STOCK
Stephen Paddock scoped out other possible sites to commit mass murder — all while his girlfriend took note of the killer’s bizarre behavior.
Paddock booked two hotel rooms overlooking the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago in August — and also looked into hotels around Boston’s Fenway Park earlier this year, it emerged on Thursday.
Word of Paddock’s other potential targets came amid another troubling report that he showed signs of mental breakdown ahead of Sunday’s carnage in Las Vegas.
Longtime gal pal Marilou Danley revealed Paddock “would lie in bed, just moaning and screaming, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” according to an NBC News report citing former FBI officials briefed on the matter.
Danley — who was out of the country during the carnage but is now back and being interviewed by feds — also said that Paddock showed “mental-health symptoms,” one of the officials said.
Investigators are struggling to figure out why Paddock, 64, went on the deadly spree that killed 58 and injured nearly 500 others in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.
Paddock had ammonium nitrate and 50 pounds of explosives in his car, leading investigators to probe what other attacks he might have had in mind.
The madman had reserved a room for Aug. 1 and a second room for Aug. 3 at The Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, which overlooks the popular indiemusic festival Lollapalooza, TMZ first reported.
Both rooms had a checkout date of Aug. 6, the last day of the festival.
Paddock specifically requested that the rooms have a sweeping view of
Grant Park — about 500 yards away — and even asked a hotel worker to call him if his request could not be granted, sources told TMZ. But, in the end, the killer never showed up.
Among the 400,000 who packed Grant Park for Lollapalooza was former First Daughter Malia Obama.
Chicago police officials said they’re working with feds and will ramp up security for Sunday’s Chicago Marathon.
Paddock also researched hotels in Boston — and Googled the Boston Center for the Arts, along with other large concert venues in the area, sources told the Boston Globe.
An official told the Globe it was unclear whether Paddock was ever in Boston — or when he conducted the Internet searches.
The wealthy retired accountant may have scoped out other Vegas music events before attacking concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
Paddock rented several units through Airbnb at The Ogden, a luxury condo tower overlooking a bigger music festival, called Life is Beautiful, in downtown Las Vegas the weekend before Sunday’s slaughter.
In September, he made regular trips to the Mandalay Bay hotel, where he went on a gambling binge the night before the massacre, ABC News reported.
Paddock was also seen with a mystery woman, whom authorities are trying to locate, in the days before the slaughter.
Officials don’t know if she had any connection to the attack, but they want to interview her, ABC reported.