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.
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