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Minority & Small Business Week
October 4, 2017
Deadliest Shooting in Modern US History
Motive still
a mystery as
authorities look
for clues
(AP) -- Investigators trying to
figure out why Stephen Paddock
gunned down 59 people from his
high-rise hotel suite are analyz-
ing his computer and cellphone,
looking at casino surveillance
footage and seeking to interview
his girlfriend.
Nearly two days after the
deadliest mass shooting in mod-
ern U.S. history, what set off the
64-year-old high-rolling gambler
and retired accountant remained
a big question mark Tuesday,
though the Las Vegas sheriff said
he is confident investigators will
find a motive.
Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou
Danley, is considered a “person
of interest” and has been speak-
ing with police from the Phil-
ippines, where she is traveling,
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said.
“We anticipate some informa-
tion from her shortly,” he said.
While the probe into Pad-
dock’s background included
searches of two houses he owned
in Nevada, some investiga-
Concertgoers run over barriers and duck for cover when gunfire from a sniper perched in a nearby hotel aims his firepower at a concert
venue along the Las Vegas strip on Sunday, killing 59 people and injuring more than 500. (Getty Images)
tors turned their focus from the Bay hotel casino where his vic- mented evidence at the site where
gunfire rained down Sunday night
shooter’s perch to the festival tims fell.
grounds outside the Mandalay
A dozen investigators docu- and country music gave way to
screams of pain and terror.
“Shoes, baby strollers, chairs,
sunglasses, purses. The whole
field was just littered with
things,” said Nevada Attorney
General Adam Laxalt, who told
The Associated Press it was like a
“war zone.” ‘’There were blood-
stains everywhere.”
Paddock killed himself before
a SWAT team blew off the door of
his room on the 32nd floor.
Investigators found video
cameras set up inside his room
and on a service cart outside it
to spy anyone coming his way,
Lombardo said.
A hotel security guard who
approached the room during the
rampage was shot through the
door and wounded in the leg.
Paddock had 23 guns with him
at the hotel, along with devic-
es that can enable a rifle to fire
continuously, like an automatic
weapon, authorities said. Nine-
teen more guns were found at his
Mesquite home and seven at his
Reno house.
More than 500 people were
injured in the rampage, some by
gunfire, some during the chaot-
ic escape. At least 45 patients at
two hospitals remained in critical
condition.
All but three of the dead had
been identified by Tuesday after-
noon, Lombardo said.
Retired FBI profiler Jim Cle-
mente speculated that there was
“some sort of major trigger in his
life — a great loss, a breakup, or
maybe he just found out he has a
terminal disease.”
Clemente said a “psycholog-
ical autopsy” may be necessary
to try to establish the motive for
the attack. If the suicide didn’t
destroy Paddock’s brain, experts
may even find a neurological dis-
order or malformation, he said.
He said there could even be a
genetic component to the slaugh-
ter: Paddock’s father was a bank
robber who was on the FBI’s
most-wanted list in the 1960s and
was diagnosed a psychopath.
“The genetics load the gun,
personality and psychology aim
it, and experiences pull the trig-
ger, typically,” Clemente said.
Paddock had a business degree
from Cal State Northridge. In the
1970s and ‘80s, he worked as a
mail carrier and an IRS agent
and held down an auditing job in
the Defense Department, accord-
ing to the government. He later
worked for a defense contractor.
He had no known criminal re-
cord, and public records showed
no signs of financial troubles,
though he was said to be a big
gambler.
“No affiliation, no religion,
no politics. He never cared about
any of that stuff,” his brother,
Eric Paddock, said outside his
Florida home. He said he was at
a loss
The FBI discounted the pos-
sibility of international terrorism
early on, even after the Islamic
State claimed responsibility for
the attack.