Skip to main content

Las Vegas gunman may have planned escape, sheriff says

Paddock checked into the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on Sept. 28, bringing 10 bags and at least 23 guns, including high-power rifles. He set up surveillance cameras inside and outside his two-room suite. There was one camera on a room service cart in the hallway outside his suite, police said.
One official said he also had a camera mounted in the room, apparently to record himself.
Paddock was shuttered inside his suite for three days at the giant hotel-casino, perched high above the site of the Route 91 Harvest Festival, taking place across the street. Room service was provided at some point during his stay.
A search into Paddock's car, which was parked at Mandalay Bay, revealed several cans of tannerite as well as 1,600 rounds of ammunition, Lombardo said Wednesday afternoon.
Investigators believe Paddock used a device similar to a hammer to smash two windows in his rooms before he allegedly opened fire on the music festival crowd, shortly after a rendition of "God Bless America."
Police responded to the hotel room, where Paddock was found dead. He is believed to have killed himself before police entered.
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that Paddock utilized at least one camera outside the suite possibly to monitor approaching authorities.
"I anticipate he was looking for anybody coming to take him into custody," Lombardo said at a news conference Tuesday.
Lombardo said authorities are reviewing police body cameras.
While the motives behind the deadly rampage remain unclear, Lombardo said the attack was "obviously premeditated" and the shooter "evaluated everything he did."
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told a news conference today that the shooting "doesn't seem to have a terrorism nexus." 
 News has obtained images from inside Paddock's hotel room. A body, believed to be Paddock's, is partly visibly in one of the photos.
The images also show rifles and bullet shells scattered across the floor, with high-capacity magazines stacked like bricks in a corner. 
An employee at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino told ABC News she spent a total of 16 hours serving Paddock in the casino during her shifts there over the weekend. She said she watched him gamble for eight hours straight, from Saturday night to Sunday morning.
He played high-stakes video poker on machines in a separate, "exclusive" section of the casino, she said.
As soon as she saw Paddock's picture on the news, identifying him as the suspected gunman, she said she knew it was the man who was her customer the night before the shooting.
Portrait emerging of Las Vegas shooter as man 'descending into madness'
Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, tells family she has a 'clean conscience'
Vegas shooter had 200+ reports of suspicious activities, large financial transactions in casinos
47 guns, loaded high-capacity magazines found in Vegas shooter's hotel room and Nevada home

A 'plethora' of guns and ammo

Authorities have executed search warrants at three locations and for Paddock's vehicle parked at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
In addition to the 23 guns recovered from Paddock's hotel room — which police said were purchased in Nevada, California, Utah and Texas — authorities found a computer and several pieces of media there. Law enforcement sources said multiple loaded high-capacity magazines and a modified bump stock rifle, which allows a gun to stimulate rapid automatic gunfire, were discovered in the room as well.
Investigators are still in the process of examining the firearms to determine whether they were capable of firing automatically.
Meanwhile, material used to make explosives was found in Paddock's car. Explosive material and 19 additional firearms were discovered at Paddock's home in a Mesquite retirement community.
Five handguns, two shotguns, numerous electronics and a "plethora of ammunition" were found at his property in Reno, according to Lombardo.
Jill Snyder, the special agent in charge at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told "CBS This Morning" in an interview today that Paddock had been stockpiling firearms since 1982. He bought nearly 50 guns legally, she said, but none of those purchases set off any red flags for the ATF.
"From October 2016 to Sept. 28, 2017, he purchased 33 firearms, majority of them rifles," Snyder said. "We wouldn't get notified of the purchases of the rifles. We would only get notified if there was a multiple sale, which would be two or more handguns in an individual purchase."

Suspect's girlfriend arrives back in U.S.

Investigators say Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who lived with him at his home in Mesquite, is more than a mere witness.
"Currently she's a person of interest," Lombardo said at the news conference on Tuesday.
Danley, 62, returned on Tuesday night to the U.S. from the Philippines, where she was born, landing at Los Angeles International Airport at 7:17 p.m. PT on Philippine Air Flight 102.
She was taken out a back way so she wouldn't be seen in public, and FBI agents met her upon landing, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Police told reporters this afternoon that detectives would begin questioning Danley soon.
The law offices of Matthew Lombard confirmed for ABC News this afternoon that she is at the FBI field office in Los Angeles with Lombard, who is representing her.
Danley is not in custody and is free to go where she pleases. Investigators hope she can shed some light on the motivations behind Paddock's massacre over the weekend.
In an interview with ABC News today, Danley's elder brother Reynaldo Bustos said he immediately contacted his sister when he saw the news that her boyfriend was allegedly behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
"I called her up immediately, and she said, 'Relax. We shouldn't worry about it. I'll fix it. Do not panic. I have a clean conscience,'" Bustos said today outside Manila in Tagalog, his native language.

Paddock may have visited other festivals

Over the last several months, Paddock may have visited several music festivals in the broader Vegas area, officials briefed on the investigation told ABC News, adding that it's thought that all of them were within driving distance of Las Vegas.
Investigators believe Paddock started making regular visits to Mandalay Bay on Sept. 3 through the rest of the month. Paddock was known at "most of the big casinos" on the strip because he was a big player who came in a lot, the officials said.
Authorities are also looking into whether Paddock tried to secure a room at the El Cortez Hotel and Casino, located on the opposite side of the Las Vegas Strip from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, on the weekend that the Life Is Beautiful music festival took place, between Sept. 22 and Sept. 24, the officials said.
Paddock had rented a room at the Ogden Hotel in downtown Las Vegas the weekend of the Life Is Beautiful music festival, Lombardo said Wednesday. Authorities have recovered items and surveillance video from the weekend he stayed there, Lombardo said.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

bayern coach as been sack

Carlo Ancelotti: Bayern Munich sack Italian manager.   Carlo Ancelotti has been sacked as manager of Bayern Munich. Following Wednesday's 3-0 Champions League defeat by Paris St-Germain, the club's board has decided to dismiss the Italian, who replaced Pep Guardiola at the start of last season. Ancelotti, 58, helped Bayern win the Bundesliga last term, but they only reached the last eight of the Champions League and the German Cup semi-finals. Assistant boss Willy Sagnol will take temporary charge. Bayern, league champions in each of the past five seasons, are third in the German table, three points behind Borussia Dortmund, with four wins, one draw and one defeat from their first six matches. They next play away to Hertha Berlin on Sunday (14:30 BST). "The performance of our team since the start of the season did not meet the expectations we put to them," said Bayern's chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. "I would like to thank Car...

the weird rules the royal family are expected to follow. (But break all the time).

The weird rules the royal family are expected to follow. (But break all the time). In international news this week, a guy held his girlfriend’s hand. ^^ That sort of thing tends to earn a fair bit of attention when you’re in line to succeed the throne as ruler of a Commonwealth of nations. Especially if that thing, well, just isn’t generally done. “Prince Harry Broke Royal Protocol with Meghan Markle”, “Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Royal PDA May Have Been Against the Rules”, “Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Broke a MAJOR Royal Rule”, the headlines read. But the truth is, the Royals – especially the younger ones – break protocol all the time. Because, let’s face it, a lot of them (the rules, that is) are really bloody weird. Here are a few they’ve tossed out the window. They mustn't let people touch them And not just girlfriends. The media went nuts in 2009 when Michelle Obama and the Queen stood side-by-side with (then) US First Lady Michelle Obama, the...

Corona Virus: Italy may suspend all sport because of corona virus outbreak.

All sport in Italy has been suspended until at least 3 April because of coronavirus, the country's prime minister Giuseppe Conte has announced. This includes Serie A but not Italian clubs or national teams participating in international competitions. Serie A - Italy's top flight - had already said all games would be played behind closed doors until 3 April. Conte extended a series of strict quarantine measures, including a ban on public gatherings, to all of Italy. Earlier, Italy's Olympic committee (CONI) recommended the move to suspend all sport at all levels after hosting a special meeting of sporting federations on Monday. Italy has been the European country worst hit by coronavirus so far, with over 9,000 confirmed cases and more than 450 deaths...... Read More @ Sport News By Mr.Geezzy