Multimillionaire mass killer:
Heavy-gambler gunman who killed 59 people and hurt 527 in Vegas took
TWENTY-THREE guns in TEN bags into his Mandalay Bay sniper's nest -
where he set up assault rifles legally converted to fully automatic on
tripods. *Stephen Paddock killed at least 59 people and injured 527 when he opened fire on concertgoers Sunday A SWAT Team blew open the door to the Las Vegas suite he was using as a sniper nest, but he'd shot himself Cops recovered 23 guns, some with scopes and military-grade ammo, two with tripods, at least one full auto Other semi-auto weapons had been modified with legal bump-stocks that simulate fully automatic fire *He'd smashed two windows of his corner suite to create a kill box at the Route 91 Harvest music festival below *He also had 19 other guns, as well as explosives and as-yet-undetermined electronic devices, at his home "Paddock, 64, made a fortune in real estate but also gambled heavily on poker and slot machines, brother said "He lived in a $400,000 retirement home with girlfriend Marilou Danley, 62, who is currently in Tokyo, Japan *Paddock had no criminal record, no army training and no religious or political affiliations, his brother said *Police are still trying to figure out his motive. Other than his gambling, his life appeared largely unremarkable *Paddock's father was a 'psychopathic' serial bank robber who spent eight years on the FBI Most Wanted list *People trying to locate missing family members in Las Vegas should call 1-800-536-9488
The
man who shot dead 59 people and injured 527 others in Las Vegas on
Sunday night was a multimillionaire who took a huge arsenal of 23 guns
into his Mandalay Bay hotel room, which he transformed into an elaborate
sniper's nest before opening fire on a country music festival on
Sunday.
Stephen Paddock, 64, had made millions from real estate
deals, according to his brother; he also owned two planes and several
properties across the US, and seemed normal apart from his passion for
gambling large sums.
But he'd also secretly amassed a massive
arsenal of 42 firearms. At least one of those was automatic, while
another two had been modified with a legal bump-stock devices that
allows semi-automatic guns to give full-auto fire of up to 800 rounds a
minute. Several had scopes, and packed military-grade ammunition.
He
took 23 of those guns into his Mandalay Bay suite over several days and
set up two rifles on tripods at windows overlooking the Route 91
Harvest country music festival.
Thousands of rounds of ammunition
were also found in the suite, enabling him to fire repeatedly over the
course of 72 minutes. His car had several pounds of a fertilizer used in
bomb-making.
Paddock had lived in 27 residences in Nevada,
Florida and Texas as an adult, but other than that he had apparently
lived a quiet and unremarkable life - and the reason for his assault
remains a mystery.
The retired accountant had worked as an
internal auditor at Lockheed Martin for three years in the late 1980s,
and was a manager and investor in apartment complexes located in
Mesquite, Texas and California, which made him millions, according to
his brother.
Local police said they had no run-ins with the man,
not even traffic violations, and his brother described him as 'just a
guy who lived in Mesquite who drove down and gambled in Las Vegas and...
liked burritos.'
So the discovery that he had used 10 suitcases
to methodically move an arsenal up into his Mandalay Bay room over the
preceding weekend came as a shock to those who knew him.
Eric Paddock said he thought his brother was far from a gun fanatic.
'He
had a couple of guns but they were all handgun, legal... he might have
had one long gun, but he had them in a safe,' he said.
He said he didn't know about the 23 guns that were found in the hotel room.
A
law enforcement source told the Wall Street Journal that they found at
least one fully automatic rifle among the batch, which included
AR-15-style rifles and AK-47-style rifles.
And it later emerged
that two other semi-auto guns had been legally modified with
bump-stocks that allow them to function like fully automatic rifles,
pumping out 400-800 bullets a minute.
Bump-stocks replace the
gun's shoulder rest with a 'support step' that covers the trigger
opening. By holding the pistol grip with one hand and pushing forward on
the barrel with the other, the shooter's finger comes in contact with
the trigger.
The recoil then causes the gun to buck back and
forth, 'bumping' the trigger and firing off multiple shots. But because
the finger is technically pulling the trigger each time, it still counts
as a semi-auto weapon.
Still others could have been properly converted into fully automatic fire, the LA Times reported.
Among
the weapons found in the room were four Daniel Defense DDM4 rifles,
three FN-15s and other rifles made by Sig Sauer. A handgun was also
found.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said on Monday it
wasn't clear whether the full-auto gun was modified, or if it was
originally made that way.
He also said that the ammunition ranged
in size from .308, usually used in hunting rifles, to .223, associated
with AR-15s and other assault rifles - the latter being military-grade,
the New York Daily News reported.
Eric said the revelation of
his brother's deadly plan, which saw thousands of rounds falling on a
crowd of 22,000 people at a music festival below, was as unexpected as
seeing a meteor suddenly landing on his street.
The shocks only grew in number Monday as police raided two of Paddock's properties.
The
first was his Mesquite home in a sleepy retirement community, which he
purchased for just over $369,000 in 2015 according to public records.
What they found was a second arsenal, even bigger than the one in the Mandalay Bay room.
Some
19 additional firearms were in the house, along with the explosive
Tannerite - which is used to make explosive targets for target practice -
and several thousand rounds of ammunition, Lombardo said Monday.
He added that electronic devices were also found, but that they are still being examined to determine their purpose.
Photos of the property showed the garage door torn off its hinge and crumpled after the search.
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