Worst mass shooting in US
The Herald reports:
The man suspected of opening fire at concertgoers attending a country music festival in Las Vegas last night was a local resident with no prior criminal convictions in the state of Nevada.
Stephen Paddock, 64, lived just 90 minutes outside Las Vegas in the city of Mesquite, where he purchased a home in a retirement community for just over $369,000 in 2015 according to public records.
Paddock had both hunting and fishing licenses according to public records, as well as his pilot’s license, but no criminal record in the state of Nevada.
He was retired but had worked for as an internal auditor at Lockheed Martin for three years in the late 1980s, and managed an apartment building complex in Mesquite, Texas.
Paddock was also the son of Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, a serial bank robber who ended up on the FBI Most Wanted list back in 1969 when he escaped from federal prison in Texas while serving a 20 years sentence.
The FBI kept him on the list for the next eight years, and he was eventually found one year after he was removed from the list in 1978 while outside an Oregon Bingo hall.
The agency said that the fugitive had been “diagnosed as psychopathic” and also had possible “suicidal tendencies”.
Paddock had committed suicide by the time police breached the door to the room from which the gunman had opened fire at the Mandalay Bay Resort just after 10pm on Sunday night.
It marked the end of what has now become the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, which left at least 58 dead and 515 injured.
What a horrific attack. One madman can shoot almost 600 people, killing 58 of them.
Eric Paddock said his brother was a normal guy who must have “snapped” before carrying out the worst mass shooting in American history.
Eric Paddock said that “something happened” to make his brother Stephen kill 58 and injure 515.
Eric said that there was “absolutely no indication he could do something like this” and said that Stephen had no political or religious affiliation.
He said: “He was just a guy. Something happened, he snapped or something”.
So unusual to have no known motive or reason.
ISIS meanwhile claimed responsibility for the attack early Monday, saying the gunman was a recent convert to Islam.
That claims was quickly discredited by multiple officials, who stated that there is no evidence to support that allegation.
A 64 year old retired accountant and gambler seems an unlikely convert.
Such a tragedy. So many dead and injured for no reason. Scores of families in mourning and hundreds traumatized.