Las Vegas police say they don't know what drove a man to rain gunfire on some 22,000 music fans at an outdoor concert last October, an attack that killed 58 people. In an update on the case Friday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said there are no signs anyone helped the gunman.
The lack of a motive and any other suspects persisted despite looking into nearly 2,000 leads and sifting through thousands of hours of video, according to Lombardo, citing a preliminary investigation report that was released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on Friday (see it below).
"I know and believe there is only one suspect who killed 58 people and injured hundreds more," Lombardo said.
Stephen Paddock, 64, died after carrying out the attack on the night of Sunday, Oct. 1, in which he strafed concertgoers with gunfire from his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay casino and hotel. In their report, police say they found no manifesto or suicide note that might help explain why he would set out to murder.
One page of handwritten notes that was found in Paddock's room was one that showed calculations for the distance and drop in elevation from his position to his human targets.
The report mentions Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who was out of the country during the attack and who has been interviewed by investigators several times.
"We do not anticipate charges being brought forward against Marilou Danley," Lombardo said.
But the sheriff also hinted at others who could face arrest, saying, "The FBI has an ongoing case against an individual of federal interest."
Lombardo refused to elaborate on that case.
The police report says that Paddock had previously bought nearly 29 firearms over a number of years from 1982 to September of 2016 — and then his behavior changed: "From October 2016 through September 2017, Paddock purchased over 55 firearms," the report states, adding that in the last year of his life, Paddock preferred rifles over the handguns and shotguns that made up the bulk of his earlier purchases.
Over that period, Paddock also bought more than 100 "firearm related items," such as bump stocks, scopes and ammunition.
Paddock had rented two adjoining rooms in the Mandalay Bay hotel. In it, police found more than 20 rifles and "approximately 5,280" rounds of live ammunition.
Several types of bullets were found loaded into magazines for numerous AR-15 and AR-10 style rifles, from hollow point and polymer tipped hollow point ammunition to "Tracer, Frangible Incendiary, Armor Piercing and Armor Piercing Incendiary ammunition," the report says.
As for where the gunman got his money, the police report states, "The investigation proved Paddock was self-funded through his gambling and past real estate transactions. He was indebted to no one and in fact paid all his gambling debts off prior to the shooting."
Read the report in full.
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