Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, 64, had no criminal background
Attacker who killed at least 50 concertgoers reportedly resided in retirement village outside city, had no known motive
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The gunman who killed over 50 concertgoers in Las Vegas and wounded over 200, before being shot dead by police, was a 64-year-old local man, named Monday as Stephen Paddock.
He opened fire Sunday night from a hotel room on a packed crowd of revelers attending an open-air concert by country singer Jason Aldean, in the worst mass-shooting in US history.
Paddock was apparently also the oldest mass shooter in US history.
He was a resident of Mesquite, Nevada, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Las Vegas. Mesquite and Las Vegas police both said they had never had any contact with Paddock and he was not known to the authorities.
A woman, Marilou Danley, 62, who had earlier been named as a person of interest, was detained, but Las Vegas police later said she was released without charge and is not believed to have had any connection to the shooting.
A local reporter said that Paddock lived in the Sun City retirement community in Mesquite.
Here in Sun City retirement community where Paddock lived – media was just kicked out. Large perimeter being set up around home. #2NewsAM pic.twitter.com/ITY0icTwjQ
— DJ Bolerjack (@DJBolerjack) October 2, 2017
Las Vegas Metro Police Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said that police and FBI were still looking into Paddock’s background and had “located numerous firearms within the room that he occupied” in the Mandalay Bay hotel.
“All’s we know is that they were rifles,” he said in a press briefing. “We are executing a search warrant on the room. We have officers at his residence, and we will be executing a search warrant there also shortly.”
Police said that Paddock had opened fire on the crowds below from the 32nd floor of the giant hotel, located on the famous Las Vegas Strip.
https://twitter.com/Anna_Giaritelli/status/914821968309956609
Thousands of fans were attending the concert, which was part of a three-day country music festival known as Route 91.
Police said Paddock was killed after a SWAT team responded to reports of multiple gunfire from the Mandalay Bay, a hotel-casino next to the concert venue.
Sheriff Lombardo said that the investigation would be lengthy.
“It is going to be a long and tedious investigation,” he said. “We are bringing in all the resources of the FBI to assist us in this investigation, in particular their victim witness advocates and their CSI folks to help us process the scene and ensure that we are getting all the evidence that we can possibly obtain.”
The Times of Israel Community.