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LAS VEGAS — The gunman who killed 58 people in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history targeted aviation fuel tanks, stockpiled his car with explosives and had personal protection gear as part of an escape plan, the Clark County sheriff said Monday.
Sheriff Joe Lombardo said at a news conference that they still have not pinpointed the shooter's motive behind his decision to fire on a concert crowd of 22,000 in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel casino.
There's still no evidence Stephen Craig Paddock was motivated by ideology, and there's no evidence there was another shooter, he said. Investigators have found 200 incidents of Paddock moving through the city, and at no time was he with anyone else, Lombardo said.
They haven't found any one particular event in Paddock's life that triggered the shooting, he said. A complete evaluation of Paddock's mental condition is not yet done, Lombardo said. They didn't find any note in his room, only a paper with numbers, he said.
Lombardo also confirmed investigators are talking with Paddock's brother Eric Paddock, who traveled to Las Vegas, and continue to speak with the shooter's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, to get insight.
Lombardo declined to reveal what they've said, but he stated, "Every piece of information we get is one more piece of the puzzle."
The sheriff also changed the timeline of the shooting, explaining that a security guard in the hotel's hallway responding to a report of an open door heard drilling from Paddock's room. Paddock, who had installed three cameras to monitor the approach to his suite, opened fire through the door, spraying 200 shots down the hall and wounding the guard, who alerted other security officials.
A few minutes later, Paddock began his killing spree.
Previously the sheriff had said the guard's arrival in the hallway may have caused Paddock to stop firing. He said he didn't know what prompted Paddock to end his deadly gunfire.
Paddock was attempting to drill a hole in an adjacent wall, perhaps to mount another camera or to point a rifle through, but he never completed the work, Lombardo said.
