Everything We Know About the Las Vegas Shooting Suspect

The domestic terrorist behind the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas has been identified as Stephen Paddock.

The 64-year-old gunman’s Mesquite, Nevada, home was in a retirement community about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Not much is clear about his motives in the deadly shooting, which killed 58 and injured more than 500 others.

However, numerous details have surfaced about his background, preparation for the attack and his actions as he carried out the massing shooting.

Background

Paddock was the son of a notorious bank robber, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock. Benjamin was one of the the FBI’s most wanted criminal throughout the ’70s. He even once escaped jail when Stephen was 15.

Accordign to Stephen’s brother Eric, he did not really have any peculiar behavior or incidents throughout his life. He described him as “just a guy” with “no secrets in his past.”

This seems to be somewhat true as investigators are finding that he does not fit the typical profile of mass murderers.

Las Vegas police had no criminal record on Paddock other than a routine traffic violation. He had a hunting license in Alaska, as well as a pilot’s license. He would have to had undergone physical and mental evaluations for the latter.

Background (Continued)

Another aspect of Paddock’s past is his gambling.

He’s said to be a regular at casinos and reportedly won big on numerous occasions.

He had been flagged 200 times for suspicious bank activity over the years due to his massive bank transactions from winnings.

Another connection the assailant had with casinos was a 2014 lawsuit against the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. He slipped and fell in the casino and sued then for $32,000 in medical damages.

He ended up losing the case, but surveillance footage of the incident has surfaced.

Preparation

It’s unclear why he planned his attack, but Paddock took careful measures ahead of the mass murder.

He wired $100,000 to the Philippines, presumably for his live-in girlfriend and her family in the Philippines.

He also set up surveillance around his hotel room, including a camera to see when police were approaching.

As far as his artillery, he had made purchases at two gun shops, New Frontier Armory in North Las Vegas and Guns & Guitars in Mesquite, within the last year. He had passed all background check required for the purchases.

He had only bought small amounts at the stores, but he owned at least 49 firearms.

Of those 49 weapons, 23 were obtained at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where the attack was executed. Upon searching Paddock’s home in Mesquite, 19 more were found.

He also owned property in Reno, Nevada, where five handguns and two shotguns were located on Tuesday.

Shooting

Paddock busted open his hotel room window with a hammer and began firing on the crowd watching Jason Aldean perform at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

From his perspective, he was directly across from the crowd of nearly 22,000.

He fired his assault weapons, which were altered to emulate automatic gunfire, for nine minutes.

In the process, he killed at least 59 and injured more than 500.

Aftermath

After the attack, Paddock died by suicide via a self-inflicted gun wound.

Police received the first 911 call at 10:08 p.m. It took police officers one hour and 12 minutes to reach his hotel room.

They then blew his hotel room door off and entered the scene.

“We have sight on the suspect’s door. I need everyone in the hallway to be aware of it and get back,” a SWAT member told a dispatcher during the incident.”All units on the 32nd floor, SWAT has explosive breach, everyone in the hallway needs to move back, all units move back,”

Authorities are still investigating Paddock’s motive, with more developments being made every hour.