Las Vegas Shooting: Gunman Led A Secret Life, May Have Targeted Other Cities, Festivals

LAS VEGAS, NV — Stephen Paddock, the 64-year-old retired real estate investor who opened fire from a 32nd-floor hotel suite Sunday, lived a secret life, collecting weapons and building an arsenal that he ultimately unleashed into a concert crowd, according to police who have combed through his life. Investigators say, though, they are still baffled about what led him to go on the spree that left 58 concertgoers dead and 489 injured.

Paddock is “someone I would call disturbed and dangerous,” said Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo during a press conference late Wednesday. Police investigators continue to interview people, including staff at the hotels and casinos Paddock visited in the days and weeks leading up to the attack from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, for any information and clues, the sheriff said.

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Reports have surfaced that Paddock may have been eyeing other concerts, including Lollapolooza in Chicago in August. A report by TMZ.com indicates Paddock had rented a room from Aug. 1 to Aug. 6, the day the four-day alternative music festival ended. The hotel overlooks the Grant Park concert venue, but Paddock never checked in. (For updates on the shooting and daily news from Las Vegas, sign up for the Patch morning newsletter and Breaking News Alerts.)

Police in Boston also are investigating if Paddock considered an attack there, having reportedly looked into hotels in the Fenway area.

Police also confirmed that Paddock was in Las Vegas the weekend before the shooting, staying in a rented high-rise condo that overlooked the Life is Beautiful alternative music festival, a music featuring Chance the Rapper, Muse, Lorde and Blink-182. The three-day festival, which spanned 18 city blocks, attracted an average crowd of 45,000 people a day.

Sheriff: Vegas Shooter Led A 'Secret Life'

During a search of Paddock's car at the Mandalay, police found that Paddock had 1,600 rounds of ammunition and several containers of an explosive commonly used in target shooting that totaled 50 pounds, Lombardo revealed. But it wasn't clear what, if anything, Paddock planned with the explosives, he said.

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Another question that police are considering is whether Paddock had an accomplice in the attack. While they revealed no specific leads to an individual, Lombardo said the attack was too big for just one person to carry out.

“You’ve got to make the assumption he had to have some help at some point,” the sheriff said.

An interview with Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, also appears to have shed little light on his motives and preparations. She said she had no warning about his plans to carry out the massacre.

“I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man,” she said in a statement read by her attorney. “He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.”

Police investigators also have released a timeline of the shooting, which began with the first shot at 10:05 p.m. local time and ended, with Paddock's last shot, at 10:15 p.m. local time. At 11:20 p.m., officers stormed into Paddock's hotel suite. They found his sprawled on the floor. Police said he shot himself to death.

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Paddock checked into the Mandalay Bay suite on Sept. 28, according to a report from the Associated Press. He specifically requested an upper-floor room with a view of the Route 91 Harvest music festival, reported the AP, citing a person who had seen hotel records turned over to investigators.

The room, which goes for $590 a night, was given to Paddock free because he was a good customer who wagered tens of thousands of dollars each time he visited the casino, the person said.

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Investigators have searched his homes in Mesquite and Reno, Nevada, as well as his hotel suite at the Mandalay. They found dozens of guns, many converted into automatic weapons.

Lead image: Agents from the FBI use binoculars from the broken window where a gunman opened fire at the Mandalay Bay hotel, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, in Las Vegas. A gunman opened fire on an outdoor music concert on Sunday killing dozens and injuring hundreds. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)