Las Vegas shooter’s girlfriend said she handled ammo
LAS VEGAS — The girlfriend of the gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history told authorities they would probably find her fingerprints on bullets because she sometimes helped him load ammunition magazines.
An FBI agent tells a judge in warrant documents made public Friday that Marilou Danley wasn’t arrested when she returned to the U.S. from the Philippines days after the Oct. 1 shooting, and that she was cooperating with investigators.
Her boyfriend, Stephen Paddock, shot himself dead after firing from a Las Vegas Strip casino into a concert crowd, killing 58 people and injuring hundreds.
The agent says in the Oct. 3 document that there was no evidence at that time of “criminal involvement” by Danley, but that investigators had not ruled out the possibility.
The document says Danley also provided a DNA sample to authorities.
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Breault in Las Vegas said late Friday she could not comment about Danley or the investigation.
Paddock exchanged emails about buying rifles and bump stocks months before he carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history using guns equipped with the device that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire nearly as fast as automatic ones.
Paddock’s emails were disclosed in affidavits unsealed Friday after several media organizations, including The Associated Press, fought for their release.
The documents said Paddock had received an email from a Gmail account in July encouraging him to try an AR-style rifle before buying one. It said, “we have huge selection” in the Las Vegas area.
Paddock wrote back that he wanted to try several scopes and different types of ammunition. An email in response suggested trying a bump stock on the rifle with a 100-round magazine.
Paddock’s email address and the Gmail address had similar names. Investigators say they suspect he may have been emailing himself, but couldn’t figure out why.
FBI agents knew the gunman behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history left behind big caches of guns, ammunition and explosives when they sought warrants to search his properties and online accounts.
A U.S. judge in Nevada unsealed documents Friday showing some of what federal agents learned about Stephen Paddock in the week after the Las Vegas shooting.
They also show that agents sought the email, Facebook and Instagram accounts of Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who was in the Philippines during the Oct. 1 shooting.
Prosecutors didn’t oppose Friday’s request from media organizations including The Associated Press to release affidavits filed to get search warrants.
Authorities haven’t said why they think the 64-year-old high-stakes gambler opened fire from a casino-hotel onto a concert below. Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more before killing himself.
Fifty-eight people were killed and more than 500 were injured in the deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history.
Police and the FBI say Paddock acted alone and killed himself.
A Nevada state court judge is due to hear similar arguments next week about whether police search warrant documents should remain sealed.
