Stephen
Paddock, 64, is the man suspected of killing at least 58 people and
injuring at least 515 in t Las Vegas on Sunday night in what is now
believed to be the worst mass shooting in modern US history, police said
today.
According
to police, the shooter opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay
Bay Resort and Casino at a large crowd of more than 20,000 concertgoers
across the street attending the final night of the Route 91
Harvest Music Festival. Witnesses described the shooting as "nonstop
gunfire,” suggesting the use of automatic or semi-automatic weapons.
PHOTO:Las Vegas strip shooting after a gunman opens fire near Mandalay Bay casino, Oct 1, 2017. (ABC News)
Police
responded to the scene Sunday night and breached the suspect's hotel
room and found that the shooter, who they believe acted alone, had
killed himself. Two sources familiar with the investigation said police
found about 20 weapons – a mix of rifles and handguns -- in Paddock's
hotel room at Mandalay Bay. Authorities believe the shooter brought the
weapons into the hotel on his own and used “a device similar to a
hammer” to smash the hotel room windows between him and the crowd below.
Police
had been seeking to question the suspect’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley,
62, who appears to have lived with Paddock in Mesquite, Nev., about 80
miles northeast of Las Vegas, but authorities do not believe she was
involved in the shooting as she was located out of the country.
The
motive for the shooting remains unclear. Police said Paddock had no
criminal history, save a minor citation, so officials had no prior
knowledge about the suspect. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack,
but officials have not uncovered any connections between the suspect
and any foreign terrorist groups.
"The
FBI stated there is no apparent tie to international terrorism,” one
senior official told ABC News. “Perhaps ISIS is just trying to take
credit."
He appears to have worked as an accountant or auditor and was at one point employed by a company that later become Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense contractors.
"Stephen
Paddock worked for a predecessor company of Lockheed Martin from 1985
until 1988," the company tells ABC in a statement. "We’re cooperating
with authorities to answer questions they may have about Mr. Paddock and
his time with the company."
PHOTO:
Stephen Paddock, seen here in a photo posted on Facebook by his
girlfriend in September 2014, has been identified as the suspect in
Sunday's mass shooting in Las Vegas. (Obtained by ABC News)
Paddock
was also a licensed hunter and private pilot. He owned an aircraft that
he kept at Mesquite Metro Airport in Texas from 2007 to 2009.
“I
do not recall that he was ever a person who created any problems for
us,” the airport director told ABC News. “He kept his accounts up to
date and we never had any problems with him here."
Eric
Paddock, the suspected shooter’s brother, told ABC News that the family
was completely “dumbstruck” by the news, likening the revelation to
being “crushed by an asteroid.”
“We have no idea how or why this happened,” Eric Paddock said. “As far as we know, Steve was perfectly fine.”
While
the suspect wasn’t familiar to authorities, his name should be. The
suspect’s brother told ABC’s Tampa affiliate WFTS that their estranged
father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, was a notorious bank robber who spent several years on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitive” list.
A wanted poster circulated in 1969 described the elder Paddock as a “very dangerous” criminal.
“Diagnosed
as psychopathic,” the description reads. “Has carried firearms in
commission of bank robberies. He reportedly has suicidal tendencies and
should be considered armed and very dangerous.”
Officers
also responded to the suspect's home and executed a search warrant,
where police used a robot to remove the garage door and enter the
premises. They found additional weapons and ammunition.
PHOTO:
The house in Mesquite, NV, where the suspect in the Las Vegas shooting,
Stephen Paddock, lived. Investigators used a robot to remove the garage
door during the search, Oct. 2, 2017. (ABC News)
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Alex Stone, Katie Conway, Erin Dooley and Kenneth Moton contributed to this report.
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