FBI Shares What Inspired the Vegas Shooter

Stephen Paddock wanted infamy and mass destruction
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 29, 2019 12:13 PM CST
FBI Shares What Inspired the Vegas Shooter
In this Oct. 2, 2017 file photo, Eric Paddock holds a photo of himself, at left, and his brother, Stephen Paddock, at right, outside his home in Orlando, Fla.   (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

A high-stakes gambler who rained down a hail of gunfire, killing 58 people from his high-rise casino suite in Las Vegas, wanted infamy and mass destruction, the FBI told the AP Tuesday, but took whatever motive might stretch beyond that to his grave. "It wasn't about MGM, Mandalay Bay, or a specific casino or venue," said Aaron Rouse, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas office. "It was all about doing the maximum amount of damage and him obtaining some form of infamy." Rouse says the reason for Stephen Paddock's Oct. 1, 2017, rampage remains a mystery after months of study by agents and behavioral specialists.

Paddock's younger brother, Eric Paddock, called him the "king of microaggression"—narcissistic, detail-oriented and maybe bored enough with life to plan an attack that would make him famous. His ex-wife told investigators that he grew up with a single mom in a financially unstable home and he felt a need to be self-reliant. He sent his girlfriend Marilou Danley to visit her family in the Philippines two weeks before the attack and wired her $150,000 while she was there. Danley, a former casino worker in Reno, returned to the US after the shooting and told authorities that Paddock had complained that he was sick and that doctors told him he had a "chemical imbalance" and could not cure him. Danley, who is Catholic, told investigators that Paddock often told her, "Your God doesn't love me." (An anonymous donor has offered $62,500 if Paddock's guns are destroyed.)

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