‘An asteroid just fell on top of our family’
Shooter’s brother says he can’t understand what snapped
The brother of the man who police said killed at least 59 people and injured more than 500 said his family is “dumbfounded” by details of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
“We can’t understand what happened,” said Eric Paddock, brother of Stephen Paddock, identified by authorities in Las Vegas as the gunman who fired from a hotel room at a nearby outdoor concert.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Stephen Paddock, 64, was found dead by officers who stormed his 32nd-floor room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
Outside his home near Orlando, Eric Paddock said his brother was never an “avid gun guy” and didn’t have any background in the military.
“He’s a guy who lived in a house in Mesquite (Nev.) and drove down and gambled in Las Vegas,” Paddock told CBS News. “He did stuff, ate burritos.”
Paddock said there is “no reason” the family could imagine for his brother carrying out the massacre, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s like an asteroid just fell on top of our family.”
A motive for the shooting had not been determined.
The last time Eric Paddock spoke to his brother was after Hurricane Irma, when Stephen texted to check on their mom. Eric said he believes their mother was the last one to speak with Stephen.
“There’s absolutely no way I can even conceive that my brother would shoot a bunch of people he didn’t even know,” Eric said. “There’s no rationale. There’s nothing anywhere that said why he did this.”