Las Vegas shooting: Unanswered questions about Stephen Paddock’s evil massacre plot
ANALYSIS: There are still more questions than answers about Stephen Paddock’s motive for carrying out the worst massacre in US history.
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AS THE world continues to reel from the horror of the Las Vegas shooting, there is still no definitive answer as to Stephen Paddock’s motive for the worst massacre in US history.
Why did the 64-year-old retiree fire into a crowd of 22,000 country music fans, killing at least
58 concertgoers and leaving 489 injured?
Days after the horrendous attack, there are still more questions than answers about the killer’s motives and what it means for America.
Some of the unanswered questions so far:
WAS PADDOCK AIMING FOR BIGGER TARGET?
Citing a “knowledgeable source”, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports Paddock also fired on aviation tanks containing highly flammable fuel sitting on a property owned by McCarran International Airport, across from the Mandalay Bay Resort.
Bullet holes have been discovered in the two circular white tanks, the news outlet stated, but did not manage to penetrate them completely.
It spared the 22,000-strong crowd at the adjacent Route 91 Harvest country music festival from a potentially enormous and devastating explosion.
DID THE GUNMAN HAVE AN ACCOMPLICE?
Police have revealed they don’t believe Paddock acted alone in orchestrating his deadly attack.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of Clark County said the sheer volume of weapons, careful planning and discovery of explosives pointed to the fact that “he had to have some help”.
“You look at the weapon obtaining, the different amounts of Tannerite (explosives) available, do you think this was all accomplished on his own?” Sheriff Lombardo said.
“On face value, you’ve got to make the assumption he had to have some help at some point, and we want to ensure that that’s the answer.”
DID HE LEAVE A SUICIDE NOTE?
There is speculation that he left a suicide note. One of the photos taken of his hotel room show a piece of paper on a table. No one has said if there is something written on it or not, as police continue to comb through evidence for his motive.
HOW DID PADDOCK GET WEAPONS INTO ROOM?
Authorities reportedly found 23 weapons in Paddock’s Mandalay Bay hotel suite, to which he’d arrived by car. The Mandalay Bay says its staffers had gone in and out of the suite before the attack without noticing anything amiss. How is it possible to bring 23 weapons, including multiple assault rifles, into a hotel room from a car ithout being noticed?
WHY DID PADDOCK WIRE $100,000 TO THE PHILIPPINES?
A lawyer for the gunman’s Australian girlfriend, Marilou Danley, said the woman received $100,000 from Paddock in the days before the attack.
Ms Danley, who was questioned by FBI agents after arriving back in the US from the Philippines, claims Paddock sent her away two weeks ago on a cheap plane ticket and wired her $100,000 to buy a house for her family in the Philippines.
She said the two incidents had made her worry it was his “way of breaking up with me”.
When asked about a potential Philippines terrorism link, Las Vegas Police Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said: “We haven’t absolutely ruled out anything in this investigation,” said
“We have a lot more questions than we have answers today.”
WHO WAS MYSTERY ‘DEATH’ WOMAN?
Who was the mystery woman who pushed her way to the front of the concert and told people they were going to die?
A witness, who was celebrating her 21st birthday, told of a Hispanic woman who was behaving strangely around 45 minutes before Stephen Paddock unleashed carnage.
Witness Brianna Hendricks said: “It seemed she was telling us to either warn us, or she was part of it and she was telling us because she knew we were going to die. It was so scary.
“It felt like she had knowledge of what was about to happen.”
Las Vegas concert goer says a woman told her and group of friends, “you’re all going to die tonight,†45 minutes before shooting. pic.twitter.com/EHFpNRHKvu
— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) October 2, 2017
WHY WERE THE EXITS AT THE CONCERT BLOCKED?
Some reports from reports from witnesses who were at the scene of the shooting claimed that nearly all the exits at the concert were blocked. One witness described the situation as “being caught like a rat in a maze” with numerous “dead ends.”
WHAT WAS PADDOCK’S MOTIVE?
Paddock, 64, is said to have been a multi-millionaire with a love of gambling and hunting. He had no previous criminal record, links to terror groups or history of mental illness.
Islamic State was quick to claim responsibility for the massacre, stating that Paddock was an ISIS “soldier” who had converted to Islam a few months ago.
However, US police say they have found no evidence to support this claim. Islamic State has a history of claiming responsibility for attacks it has nothing to do with in a bid to spread fear.
Paddock’s brother, Eric, said his brother was not religious and had no army training. Eric said he was “completely dumbfounded” and that his brother — who made millions from real estate deals — gave no indication he was capable of violence.
Relatives described Paddock as “just a guy” who was never in a hurry and retired to the Nevada desert to enjoy a dry climate and Las Vegas’s casinos.
HOW DID KILLER GET ACCESS TO WEAPONS?
Investigators searching Paddock’s home in Mesquite, Nevada, have retrieved 19 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said,
The sheriff said they also found Tannerite, an explosive that detonates when shot by bullets and is used in target practice.
In Paddock’s car, authorities found more ammunition and ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser that can be used to make explosives, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Investigators are looking at whether the automatic rifles found in the hotel room were converted from semiautomatic guns or purchased that way, a law-enforcement official said. Nevada capitalises heavily on machine gun tourism, and was ranked the 22nd-best state for gun owners by Guns & Ammo magazine.
Fully automatic weapons are illegal across the US, unless they were purchased and registered prior to 1986. Semi-automatic weapons — which require the trigger to be pulled for each shot — are legal in Nevada.
There is no limit on magazine capacity, or the number of bullets a gun can hold, in Nevada.
WHY WAS HOTEL SECURITY SO SLACK ?
Questions are being asked about the security arrangements at the Mandalay Bay Resort, which towers over the famed Las Vegas strip. The gunman checked into the hotel days before the attack, using his Australian girlfriend’s ID.
It has emerged that Paddock moved 23 guns — two with tripods — up to his Mandalay Bay room in 10 suitcases in the days prior to the shooting, and had even more, along with bombs, in his nearby home.
Paddock was able to smuggle his massive stockpile of military-style weapons into the hotel before launching his attack from the windows of his room on the 32nd floor. Las Vegas police told a media conference that that they discovered in “excess of 10 rifles” in the room, and that Paddock’s death was the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Casino executives said that while they will study whether there is anything they can do to address security concerns, they think it is unlikely there will be any easy fix, the Wall Street Journal reports.
One US mass shooting expert told The Sun that hotels are a soft touch for such attacks.
Professor Adam Winkler of UCLA said the lack of security and metal detectors at hotels means weapons could easily be taken into Mandalay Bay Resort.
“Anyone can walk into a hotel with firearms without being detected,” he said.
“Firearms in a suitcase would also easily get past any hotel security.
“We could have metal detectors at the hotel entrances, but that is impractical.”
WHAT DID KILLER’S AUSSIE GIRLFRIEND KNOW?
Marilou Danley, Stephen Paddock’s Australian girlfriend, has “questions to answer” about the shocking mass murder, according to US police.
Ms Danley, the housemate and partner of Stephen Paddock, was born in the Philippines before moving to Queensland and later to Las Vegas.
When asked how Ms Danley could “not know all of that was inside her home?”, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo dismissed claims their investigation into her had been “discontinued”.
WAS MASSACRE LINKED TO GAMBLING DEBTS?
Paddock was a high-stakes gambler who, according to his brother, would win up to $250,000 a time gambling online and at casinos.
The retired accountant would regularly travel to Vegas from his home in Mesquite, Nevada, to gamble away large sums in high-stakes video poker, his brother said.
Between his gambling success and properties in Florida, Nevada and California, Paddock is believed to have been a multi-millionaire.
One theory is that Paddock may have racked up huge debts in the lead-up to the massacre.
DID CASINO GRUDGE LEAD TO MASSACRE?
Paddock filed a lawsuit against the Cosmopolitan casino — which is near the Mandalay Bay — following an incident that occurred at their Las Vegas casino.
Paddock spent two years in court fighting his case, which was ultimately dismissed in late 2014.
DID KILLER INHERIT MENTAL ILLNESS FROM FATHER?
Paddock was 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 year sentence.
Investigators are probing whether the Las Vegas killer inherited his criminal father’s mental illness and ruthless passion for violence.
WILL MASSACRE LEAD TO US GUN LAW CHANGES?
Despite the outrage over the Vegas massacre, the atrocity will not likely impact US gun laws.
“The National Rifle Association and its allies control Congress and the White House,” Professor Winkler told The Sun.
“The GOP (Republican Party) controls Congress and the White House and is opposed to any new gun restrictions.
“President Obama discovered how strong the gun rights forces are in 2013 when he tried to pass new gun safety laws.”
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, Obama tried to tighten laws on gun ownership of high calibre weapons, but was blocked by Congress.
Originally published as Las Vegas shooting: Unanswered questions about Stephen Paddock’s evil massacre plot
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