1,000 leads later, authorities still stumped by Vegas gunman

LAS VEGAS (AP) — More than a week after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history investigators are stumped about the key question: What led a 64-year-old high-stakes gambler to kill 58 people and wound hundreds of others at a country music concert?

It’s an answer they may never find.

The FBI and Las Vegas police have sorted through more than a thousand leads and examined Stephen Paddock’s politics, finances, any possible terrorist radicalization and his social behavior. By Monday they had repeatedly searched his homes and interviewed his brother, girlfriend and others he’s done business with.

But the typical investigative avenues that have helped uncover the motive in past shootings have yielded few clues about Paddock, a professional gambler who spent nearly every waking hour playing video poker at casinos. That closeted existence has covered the trail for investigators.

“This individual purposely hid his actions leading up to this event and it is difficult for us to find the answers to those actions,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Monday, conceding he’s frustrated.

The FBI has brought in behavioral profilers as they continue questioning Paddock’s live-in girlfriend, Marilou Danley, about his gun purchases and what she may have noticed about his behavior, Lombardo said.

Paddock had stockpiled 23 guns, a dozen of them modified to fire continuously like an automatic weapon inside his 32nd-floor Mandalay Bay hotel room, where he busted out two windows before opening fire on the crowd.

The sheriff changed the timeline of the shooting Monday, 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 the 10-minute attack on those on the ground.

Previously the sheriff had said the guard’s arrival in the hallway may have caused Paddock to stop firing. He said Monday he didn’t know what prompted Paddock to end his deadly gunfire.

The gunman had shot at aviation fuel tanks, stocked his car with explosives and had personal protection gear as part of an escape plan, authorities said Monday.

Paddock’s life has remained somewhat of a mystery and most people who have interacted with him said nothing really stood out about him.

“It’s his actual normalcy that makes him a fascinating study,” said David Gomez, a former FBI profiler.

The small group people who knew Paddock well has said the one-time IRS agent and the son of a notorious bank robber did essentially nothing except gamble, sleep and travel between casinos. Investigators are sifting through every piece of Paddock’s life from birth to death, Lombardo has said.

“Every piece of information we get is one more piece of the puzzle,” the sheriff said Monday.

Experts say it is extremely unusual to have so few clues more than a week after a mass shooting. In past mass killings or terrorist attacks, killers left notes, social media postings and information on a computer, or even phoned police.

In this case, there was no suicide note, no manifesto, no evidence the gunman was motivated by any ideology and Paddock has no clear presence on social media, police said.