More Details Emerge On How Las Vegas Shooter Killed 58 People

A handwritten note has been found in Stephen Paddock’s hotel room containing calculations pertaining to the distance and trajectory from his 32nd-floor window to the crowd of concertgoers he targeted below.

The note was found in the hotel suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino among 23 firearms, ammunition and the gunman’s dead body. It would be recalled that Paddock took his own life, authorities said, after killing 58 people and wounding nearly 500.

Investigators have been combing through evidence left behind and Paddock’s background for any hint as to what motivated the retired accountant to amass an arsenal of high-powered assault rifles. They also hope to find out how he meticulously mapped out an attack and opened fire on the crowd at last weekend’s Route 91 Harvest Festival.

In the news briefing and an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Undersheriff Kevin C. McMahill released more details about the shooting and investigation. The details include:

• A Mandalay Bay security guard who authorities believe drew Paddock’s attention toward the hallway outside his hotel suite went to that floor to respond to an alarm due to an open door near Paddock’s room. The guard, Jesus Campos, was shot in the leg while checking on the alarm. According to a police-reported timeline, Paddock never fired on the crowd below again after that.

• The alarm from a room “a number of doors down” from Paddock’s likely was a coincidence. The door was not forced open, had been open for a while and Paddock didn’t have the keys to that room. McMahill said that door either had been left open or didn’t shut completely.

• Investigators looking into Sunday’s massacre have found no known nexus to terrorism or connections to ISIS.

• Authorities are confident there was not another shooter in Paddock’s room but are still trying to determine whether anyone else knew of his plans.

• Authorities do not believe another person used Paddock’s room key at the Mandalay Bay hotel.

• Investigators have reviewed “voluminous amounts of video” from different locations, including Mandalay Bay, and have not seen any other person they think at this point is another suspect.

• Asked about video on which Paddock might have discussed motive, McMahill said: “I am not aware that we have recovered any such video.”

• Police don’t know what the killer was going to do with 50 pounds of explosives found in his car.

• Paddock brought the 23 guns and ammunition he had in his hotel suite over the course of several days.

• Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, continues to cooperate with investigators.

Comments

comments