Gunman’s secret life thwarts police hunt for motive
This undated photo provided by Eric Paddock shows his brother, Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock. On Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival killing dozens and wounding hundreds. (Photo courtesy of ERIC PADDOCK via AP)
LAS VEGAS—The gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history led a secret life that has so far thwarted investigators trying to figure out a motive for the attack.
In an effort to try to crack Stephen Paddock’s state of mind, the FBI spent hours on Wednesday interviewing his longtime girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who returned on Tuesday from a weekslong overseas trip and said she had no inkling of the massacre he was plotting when he sent her to see family in her native Philippines.
Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said it was difficult to believe Paddock acted alone in Sunday’s attack that killed 58 and injured nearly 500 people at a country music concert on the Las Vegas Strip.
“Maybe he’s a superguy,” Lombardo said before catching himself and calling it the wrong word. “You know, a superyay-hoo that was working out all this on his own. But it would be hard for me to believe that.”
Danley, whom authorities had previously called “a person of interest,” had been expected to provide insight into the mind of Paddock, a frustratingly opaque figure who carried out his high-rise massacre without leaving the plain-sight clues often found after major acts of bloodshed.
Lombardo said on Wednesday that Paddock had 1,600 rounds of ammunition and several containers of an explosive commonly used in target shooting that totaled 23 kilograms in his car.
But it wasn’t clear what, if anything, Paddock planned with the explosives, he said.
Paddock, who set up surveillance cameras in his room and to see anyone approaching outside, also had an escape plan, Lombardo said, though he fatally shot himself as police closed in on his luxury suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino-hotel.
Lombardo declined to say what led authorities to believe he planned an escape.
The previous weekend, Paddock rented a high-rise condo in a building that overlooked the Life is Beautiful alternative music festival, Lombardo said.
On Sept. 28, the 64-year-old high-stakes gambler and real estate investor checked into Mandalay Bay and specifically requested an upper-floor room with a view of the Route 91 Harvest music festival.
Paddock wasn’t able to move into the room until Saturday.
The room, which goes for $590, was given to Paddock for free because he was a good customer who wagered tens of thousands of dollars each time he visited the casino. —AP
