Las Vegas police have closed their investigation into the Mandalay Bay massacre carried out by Stephen Paddock — and they still have no idea why…
Las Vegas police have closed their investigation into the Mandalay Bay massacre carried out by Stephen Paddock — and they still have no idea why he did it.
Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds more wounded in the Oct. 1 shooting, and authorities say they have yet to find a single shred of evidence to back up a motive.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo released the Metropolitan Police Department’s final report on Friday, but it only offered a glimpse inside of Paddock’s “paranoid and delusional” brain.
“What we have been able to answer are the questions of who, what, when, where and how,” Lombardo told reporters at a press conference. “What we have not been able to definitively answer is the ‘why’ Stephen Paddock committed this act.”
The 64-year-old retiree suffered from “mental illness” and was believed to have been bipolar, but had never been diagnosed or arrested before, according to investigators.
“There was no evidence of radicalization or ideology to support any theory that Paddock supported or followed any hate group or any domestic or foreign terrorist organization,” the report states. “Despite numerous interviews with Paddock’s family, acquaintances and gambling contacts, investigators could not link Paddock to any specific ideology… Although Paddock’s liquid wealth declined prior to 1 October, the investigation proved Paddock was self-funded through his gambling and past real estate transactions. He was indebted to no one and paid all his gambling debts off prior to the shooting. Although investigators were told early on in the investigation Paddock had a bank account frozen for high dollar transfers, it was determined this information was false for the two years preceding the incident.”
While investigators were unable to discover a motive, cops said there were “certain indicators of intent” shown by Paddock leading up to the shooting.
The twice-divorced gambler made reservations to attend two different music festivals before eventually setting his sights on the Route 91 Harvest festival in Vegas. One was Lollapalooza in Chicago and the other was the Life is Beautiful festival — also in Sin City.
Paddock “specifically requested” rooms overlooking the venues and was “observed in video surveillance transporting several suitcases from his vehicle to the units he reserved.”
“Investigators have been unable to determine if Paddock intended an attack during this festival or if he used it as a means to plan a future attack,” but his intentions were clear, the report says.
“Paddock purchased over 55 firearms, which were mostly rifles in various calibers, from October 2016 to September 2017,” according to investigators. “He bought over 100 firearm-related items through various retailers.”
Overall, police believe Paddock “acted alone” and got help from no one else.
“In reference to the 2,000 investigated leads, 22,000 hours of video, 252,000 images obtained and approximately 1,000 served legal processes, nothing was found to indicate motive,” the report says.
Paddock, who lived in Nevada, took his own life after the mass shooting.
Photos released by police on Friday with the investigative report showed him laying on his back inside his 32nd floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, with shell casings all around him.
Paddock turned the room into a make-shift sniper’s nest that night.
First, he used an “Estwing hammer” to bust out a window before taking aim at concertgoers at the festival below. Investigators say they found “stacks” of loaded gun magazines and AR-style rifles — some with bipods — littered throughout the suite.
“No suicide note or manifesto was found,” the report states. “Of all the evidence collected from rooms 32-135 and 32-134, there was no note or manifesto stating Paddock’s intentions. The only handwritten documentation found in either room was the small note indicating measurements and distances related to the use of rifles.”
Information pertaining to the Mandalay Bay’s response to the shooting were also included in the 187-page report, along with interviews with Paddock’s younger brother, Bruce, and security guard Jesus Campos. Details about the police response, however, were not.
“This is not a review of every officer’s actions or responses that took place that night,” Sheriff Lombardo told reporters. “Those reviews are internal and are considered personnel matters. They will not be released to the public.”
Bruce Paddock said in police interviews that he believed his brother was meticulous, but not murderous.
“Bruce speculated that Paddock would’ve had to be ‘very pissed off’ to commit such a violent act,” the report states, noting how Bruce “further stated Paddock would have planned everything well in advance.”
According to Bruce, his brother was “successful and wealthy,” he worked for the IRS and the US Postal Service, and owned “several” apartment buildings.
During the investigation, financial records showed that Paddock had lost more than $1.5 million over the span of two years — but his other brother, Eric, told cops that it wouldn’t of mattered because he had already won “millions of dollars gambling.”
“Eric believed Paddock may have conducted the attack because he had done everything in the world he wanted to do and was bored with everything,” the report states.
“If so, Paddock would have planned the attack to kill a large amount of people because he would want to be known as having the largest casualty count. Paddock always wanted to be the best and known to everyone.”
With Post wires
