Paddock wired $100,000 to Philippines
DUBAI 4 October 2017: The Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock’s girlfriend, Marylou D. is a Filipina, according to news reports.
She was in Tokyo at the time of the shooting and is expected to arrive back to the US later today.
Police are waiting to interview here to find out more about Paddock. They are still foxed as to why Paddock carried out the heinous massacre of 59 persons and injured another 427 at a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night.
They say there has to be an event that triggered the massacre and the girlfriend’s briefing can possibly provide the clues.
Paddock was found dead by police with self-inflicted gunshot wound when they broke into his suite.
Vigils for the victims have been held in LV and other places.
Days before the shooting – Paddock, a rich man with a taste for gambling – had wired US$100,000 to the Philippines.
Commenting on the massacre, US President Donal Trump said “We have a tragedy”. Trump was in Puerto Rico yesterday and is expected to visit Las Vegas.
Some 42 guns have been found in Stephen Paddock’s possession by the investigating authorities.
Paddock had 23 guns in his suite at Mandalay Bay hote, another 19 at home, thousands of rounds of ammunition, including ammonium nitrate in his car – a chemical that can be used to make explosives.
The presence of 42 guns – some of which were modified to fully automatic military grade weapons and ammonium nitrate, point a finger at the possibility that Paddock may have been planning something bigger, analysts said on CNN.
There have so far not emerged any sign of mental illness or political ties, but Stephen Paddock, a retired 64-year old accountant living in a retirement community on a golf course in Mesquite loved gambling and high stakes poker, said his younger brother Eric.
Paddock has a 90-year-old mother who lives with Eric.
The hotel suite he was accopying in Mandalay Bay was large with several windows, two of which he broke on different sides.
“My gut fell out,” said gun shop owner Chris Michel. Paddock bought three guns from Dixie Gun Worx across border in Utah. “He was a normal everyday guy”.
The shooting has raised hue and cry over America’s lax gun laws and the Second Amendment that allows the right to bear arms. The powerful National Rifle Association lobbies hard against gun control and Republicans favour it in general.