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Stephen Paddock
down a federal agent with his car and was serving a 20-year sentence for a string of robberies in Phoenix when he escaped. An FBI poster about the elder Paddock at the time called him "armed and very dangerous" and he remained on the bureau's list until 1977. He died in 1998.From Talking Points Memo.com
Updated: 12:29 p.m. ET.
Less than twelve hours after he allegedly fired a fusillade of bullets onto an outdoor country music festival from a Las Vegas hotel room, killing at least 58 people and injuring more than 500 others before turning a gun on himself, little has emerged about the man suspected of carrying out the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Stephen Craig Paddock, 64, did not appear to have any social media accounts associated with his name. The few details that have trickled out from law enforcement and family members about Paddock’s life offer little insight into why he allegedly opened fire Sunday night on the Route 91 Harvest festival. Indeed, Paddock seems to have targeted the very things he enjoyed: country music and concerts at hotels on the Las Vegas strip.
“We are in complete shock, bewilderment and horror,” one anonymous relative who spoke to the Washington Post said. “We have absolutely no idea how in the world Steve did this. Absolutely no concept. There was nothing secret or strange about him.”
Unidentified relatives told the newspaper that Paddock, who lived in a retirement community in the sleepy desert city of Mesquite, some 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, lived a quiet, uneventful life. He enjoyed country music and visited Sin City frequently to gamble and attend concerts at the flashy hotels that line the Strip, the relatives said.
Paddock had in the last few weeks made several large gambling transactions in “the tens of thousands of dollars,” anonymous law enforcement officials told NBC News. NBC reported that it wasn’t immediately clear if those transactions were losses or wins.
The suspected gunman was a license pilot who owned two planes, and he also had a hunting license from Alaska, according to NBC.
TPM’s attempts to contact Paddock’s relatives at publicly listed telephone numbers and through Facebook were unsuccessful.
Ten rifles were found in the hotel room his brother had checked into on Thursday on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas Police Chief Joe Lombardo reported. Lombardo said that police had completed the investigation of the room, where officers found Paddock dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Mesquite, Nevada police spokesman Quinn Averett said in a press conference that “some weapons” and “maybe some ammunition” were found in Paddock’s home, where officers executed a search warrant.
“He might have had a gun or two, but he didn’t have a huge stock of guns,” his brother Eric Paddock, who lives in Orlando, Florida, told the Las Vegas Review Journal.
“He’s just a guy who lived in Mesquite who liked burritos,” Eric Paddock said in a separate interview with CBS News.
Authorities had also learned that Paddock “additional property in northern Nevada” and were coordinating with the FBI to respond to and serve a search warrant at that location, according to Lombardo. He had no criminal history in Las Vegas except for a minor traffic citation, the police chief confirmed.
Mesquite Police Department spokesman Averett said that his officers had never had any interactions with Paddock, either. Averett described Paddock’s house as “a newer home, it’s a new subdivision and it’s a nice, clean, home” on a quiet cul-de-sac.
Paddock shared the residence with his girlfriend Marilou Danley, a 62-year-old woman identified by authorities as a person of interest in the investigation. Lombardo said she had been contacted outside of the country and that his department intends “to engage her” upon her return to the U.S.
s of 11:30 AM today we will be updating all day |
update 12:00 pm
Here’s what we know about Paddock so far:
- The 64 year-old man was not previously known to police, according to CNN.
- Paddock reportedly had “at least” 10 rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in the Mandalay Bay hotel room he had occupied since Sept. 28. Nevada doesn’t require gun licenses or for owners to register their guns, and citizens can own as many as they would like. Machine guns are legal in the state, but they have to be registered according to federal regulations, the National Rifle Association says.
- Paddock fired from a window on the 32nd floor of the hotel onto the Route 91 Harvest music festival taking place across the street. About 22,000 people were in attendance.
- Paddock was found dead, possibly having killed himself, when police entered his room, according to CNN.
- Local authorities are currently unclear on Paddock’s motives, according to the BBC.
- Paddock owned a home in a retirement community where he lived with Danley, 62. She was out of the country at the time of the shooting, according to police. Paddock’s home is being searched.
- Paddock held hunting and fishing licenses from Alaska, a private-pilot license, and may have worked as an accountant or auditor, according to ABC.
- He reportedly owned two aircraft as well. The Federal Aviation Administration is gathering his flight records, CNN reported.
- Paddock had no criminal record, apart from a citation several years ago.
- His brother, Eric Paddock, who lives in Florida, told NBC News he was stunned to hear what Stephen had done. Eric added that his retired brother was “just a guy.” He told CBS News that his brother had no military training, and had no idea where he obtained automatic weapons from:
| Las Vegas shooter made gambling transactions worth 'tens of thousands of dollars' in recent weeks |
| Law enforcement officials say Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock made several gambling transactions worth 'tens of thousands of dollars' in the weeks leading up to the mass shooting at a country music festival on Sundayevening. Paddock's brother said he was stunned by the news, describing the shooter, a 64-year-old from Mesquite, Nevada, as "just a guy" who went to hotels on the Strip, gambled, and went to shows. |
Wife Not Involved see from Mesquite press conference
Averett said a woman who the Clark County Sheriff’s Office had earlier identified as a person of interest had lived in the home. Clark County Sheriff Lombardo said earlier Monday of that person, Marilou Danley: “We have located her out of the country. She was not with him when he checked in. We have discovered he was utilizing some of her identification. And we have conversation with her, and we believed her, at this time, not to be involved.”
“The female that was named by Las Vegas — does show that she’s lived in this home as well,” Averett said, asked about “the person of interest, the female who was named by Las Vegas.”
Averett directed several questions to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Force, and said the Mesquite Police Department was assisting with their investigation.
Police ID’d the gunman as Stephen Paddock, 64
Police identified the suspected gunman as Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old white man who was living in Mesquite, Nevada.
Lombardo told reporters that police had yet to find any “derogatory” background information on Paddock. Lombardo noted that Paddock had a citation several years ago that was resolved in court, but he did not describe that citation. NBC News reported that Paddock had been known to local law enforcement.
Paddock checked into the Mandalay Bay hotel on Sept. 28, Lombardo said, adding that it’s unclear whether the suspect prevented housekeeping from entering the room during his stay.
Police searched for Marilou Danley, believed to be Paddock’s roommate, and initially identified her as a person of interest in the case. Lombardo told reporters Monday morning that authorities found Danley abroad, and believe at this time that she was not involved in the incident. Lombardo said that Danley was not with the suspect when he checked into the hotel, although the suspect had been using her ID. Lombardo didn’t specify why the suspect used Danley’s ID.
Paddock had more than 10 rifles
The suspected gunman had more than 10 rifles in his hotel room, Lombardo told reporters in a press conference. McMahill had previously told CNN that the gunman had several long rifles in the room.
While several rounds of automatic gun fire can be heard in videos of the shooting, police have yet to identify the weapons used by the gunman.
Police are searching Paddock’s home—and searching for a motive
Police were still searching Paddock’s hotel room at Mandalay Bay and had just begun searching Paddock’s home in Mesquite around 9 a.m. ET Monday morning. Lombardo said that the search of the residence in Mesquite would take some time as law enforcement carefully search for any explosives.
Lombardo said that law enforcement had not yet identified a motive for the mass shooting. Police have not labeled the incident as terrorism, either.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the shooting but did not provide any evidence to support that claim.
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