| “ | I'm the biggest video poker player in the world. How do I know that? Because I know some of the video poker players that play big. Nobody played as much and as long as I did. | ” |
— Paddock
| ||
Stephen Craig Paddock was an American mass murderer and sniper responsible for the 2017 Las Vegas Strip shooting. He killed 58 people, injuring more than 800 others and eventually committing suicide by self-inflicted gunshot. It is currently the deadliest shooting by a lone perpetrator in U.S. history, surpassing the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting that previously held the distinction.
Background[]
Paddock was born in Clinton, Iowa. The family lived in Clinton at the time. He grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and the Sun Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles, as the eldest of four sons of Benjamin Paddock. Benjamin was a bank robber who was arrested in 1960 when Stephen was seven years old. Benjamin was later convicted and escaped prison in 1969, subsequently appearing on the FBI's most-wanted list. According to Stephen's brother, they never really knew their father as he was never with their mother.
Benjamin Paddock wanted poster
Paddock graduated from John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in 1971, and from California State University, Northridge in 1977, with a degree in business administration.
Paddock worked as a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service from 1976 to 1978. After that, he worked as an Internal Revenue Service agent until 1984. Then, he was a federal auditor for one year, in 1985, focusing on defense contractors. Toward the end of the 1980s, Paddock worked for three years as an internal auditor for a company that later merged to form Lockheed Martin. He is known to have run a real-estate business with his brother Eric. He lived in the Greater Los Angeles Area and owned personal property in areas including Panorama City, Cerritos, and North Hollywood from the 1970s to early 2000s. He also owned two apartment buildings in Hawthorne, California. In addition, he owned an apartment complex in Mesquite, Texas, which he sold in 2012.
Relatives said Paddock was worth at least US$2 million when he sold off the real-estate business. Among his most profitable investments was an apartment complex purchased in 2004, which gave him more than $500,000 in annual income by 2011. IRS records show he made $5–6 million in profits from its sale in 2015.
Paddock was an avid gambler, and although the extent to which he profited from it is not clear, his reported gambling winnings might have been substantial. He was sometimes seen in high-limit rooms, but he was not well known among high-stakes gamblers in Las Vegas and was not considered a "whale" by the casinos. His game of choice was video poker, which he had played for over 25 years. He usually gambled after dark and slept during the day; he disliked being out in the sun.
Paddock was married and divorced twice. He was first married from 1977 to 1979, and for the second time from 1985 to 1990, both marriages in Los Angeles County, California. Family members say he stayed on good terms with his ex-wives. His brother Eric said that Stephen had no political or religious affiliations of any kind.
Paddock lived in Texas and in California, and then in a retirement community in Melbourne, Florida, from 2013 to 2015. In 2016, he moved from Florida to another retirement home in Mesquite, Nevada. According to property records, he bought a new single-family home in Mesquite in January 2015 and sold his two-bedroom home in Melbourne. Paddock lived in Mesquite for several years with his girlfriend whom he met in Reno, Nevada. According to neighbors, they also lived together in Reno. Many Mesquite residents recalled only seeing him around town; those familiar with Paddock described him as someone who did not speak much and kept a low profile. The local gun owner community never saw him at any of the gun clubs or shooting ranges, including makeshift ones in the nearby desert.
An Australian acquaintance said he met Paddock in the United States and in the Philippines. He described Paddock as intelligent and methodical. In his account, Paddock claimed to have won a lot of money by applying algorithms to gambling on machines. Paddock was conversant in gun laws and in defending his view of the Second Amendment. The acquaintance considered Paddock a generous man whenever he and his girlfriend visited him.
In 2010, Paddock applied for and received a United States passport. He went on 20 cruise ship voyages, visiting several foreign ports including in Spain, Italy, Greece, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. He was accompanied by his girlfriend on nine of them. They went to the Philippines together in 2013 and 2014. During the last year of his life, they traveled on a cruise to the Middle East. Paddock had his pilot's license since at least 2004 and owned two small planes.
Paddock's only recorded interaction with law enforcement was a minor traffic citation years before the shooting, which he settled in court. According to court records, Paddock also sued the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas in September 2012, claiming he "slipped and fell on an obstruction on the floor" and was injured as a result; the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in October 2014.
Shooting, Death, and Investigation[]
Las Vegas shooting schematics
During his last months, Paddock reportedly smelled of alcohol from early morning and was despondent according to others. He was reported to have filled prescriptions for the anti-anxiety drug Valium, in 2013 and 2016, as well as the highest dose of 50 tablets 10-milligrams each in late June 2017. The chief medical officer of the Las Vegas Recovery Center said the effects of the drug can be magnified by alcohol, as confirmed by Dr. Michael First, a clinical psychiatry professor at Columbia University.
During an interview with local CBS affiliate KLAS-TV, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Paddock had reportedly been losing "a significant amount of wealth" since September 2015, which led to him having "bouts of depression".
Paddock's gun purchases spiked significantly between October 2016 and September 28, 2017, just 2 days before the shooting. He purchased over 55 firearms, the majority of them rifles, according to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He also purchased a number of firearm-related accessories. Prior to that, he purchased approximately 29 firearms between 1982 and September 2016, mainly handguns and shotguns.
At his suggestion, two weeks before the attack, his girlfriend went to her native Philippines. Paddock bought her a surprise airline ticket and soon later wired her $100,000 to buy a house there. He was spotted in Las Vegas with another woman, reported by investigators to be a prostitute. It has been confirmed that she was not an accomplice and was not considered a suspect. Her name has not been released. Two days prior to the shooting, Paddock was recorded by a home surveillance system driving alone to an area for target practice located near his home.
According to the Las Vegas Police Department's investigation, Paddock reportedly espoused right-wing anti-government and conspiratorial viewpoints, including FEMA conspiracies and a need to arm the people to fight gun control, in the weeks before the shooting. He reportedly told a friend that "sometimes, sacrifices have to be made" in order to encourage the American public to arm themselves.
On the night of October 1, 2017, at 10:05 p.m., Paddock opened fire from his hotel room onto a large crowd of over 22,000 concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 58 people and wounding 851 others.
Paddock meticulously planned the attack. On September 25, six days before the shooting, he checked into a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel with 10 range bags and a computer. On September 29, he moved into another suite connected to the first one; both rooms overlooked the festival grounds. He stayed in both in the days leading up to the shooting. After Paddock killed himself, the police found 23 rifles and one handgun inside his room. They included 14 .223-caliber AR-15-type rifles, seven .308-caliber AR-10-type rifles, one .308-caliber Ruger American bolt-action rifle, and one .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 342 revolver, all very expensive, according to a law enforcement source. His arsenal included a large quantity of ammunition in special high-capacity magazines, holding up to 75, or up to 100 cartridges each. Some of the rifles were resting on bipods and were equipped with high-tech telescopic sights. All fourteen AR-15-type rifles were outfitted with bump fire stocks that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire rapidly, simulating fully-automatic gunfire. Audio recordings of the attack indicated Paddock used these stocks to fire at the crowd in rapid succession.
At some point during the attack on the concertgoers, at 10:05 p.m., Paddock – who had placed a baby monitor camera on a service cart outside his room – fired about 200 rounds through his door. The shots wounded approaching hotel security guard Jesus Campos. The unarmed Campos had attempted to enter the 32nd floor first at 9:59 p.m. on an unrelated matter, but he found the door to the hallway screwed shut by Paddock. At 10:05 p.m., Paddock began firing thousands of rounds in rapid succession at the crowd of concertgoers below. He stopped shooting ten minutes later at 10:15 p.m. It is unclear why.
According to the chronology of the events established by the authorities in the following days, the first two police officers reached the 32nd floor of the hotel at 10:17 p.m. A minute later, they were shown the location of his door. Between 10:26 and 10:30 p.m., an additional eight LVMPD officers joined them and began clearing other suites along the 32nd floor hallway. At 10:55 p.m., eight SWAT team members entered the 32nd floor through the second stairwell nearest to Paddock's suite. Once all the other rooms on the floor had been cleared, at 11:20 p.m. more than an hour after the first two officers arrived, and 65 minutes after Paddock had ceased firing, the police breached his door with an explosive charge and entered the room. Paddock was found dead inside his suite from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
In addition to the firearms and accessories found in Paddock's hotel room, there was a note that reportedly included handwritten calculations about where he needed to aim to maximize his accuracy. The note contained only the actual distance to the target, his own elevation, and the bullet trajectory relative to the line of fire. There were also a number of laptops in the suite, one of which was missing a hard drive. Computer forensics discovered several hundred images of child pornography. Coincidentally his brother Bruce was arrested in North Hollywood on charges of possessing over 600 child pornography images.
Ammonium nitrate, often used in improvised explosive devices, was found in the trunk of his car, along with 1,600 rounds of ammunition and 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of tannerite, a binary explosive used to make explosive targets for gun ranges. However, investigators clarified that while Paddock had "nefarious intent" with the material, he did not appear to have assembled an explosive device. An additional 19 firearms were found at his home.
According to police, Paddock acted alone. His motive remains unknown. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility, but United States law enforcement officials have given no evidence of a connection between Paddock and ISIS. No evidence has been found of any brain abnormality, according to autopsy results, though toxicology and other autopsy results have yet to be disclosed. Paddock's remains were sent to Stanford University to receive a more extensive analysis of his brain.
Investigators believe that he was obsessed with cleanliness and possibly had bipolar disorder. Although a doctor did offer him antidepressants, he only accepted anxiety medication. The doctor also described Paddock as "odd" and showing "little emotion". It was reported that he was fearful of medication and often refused to take it.
Modus Operandi[]
Paddock's rented room as it presented itself after the police break-in. Some of the firearms he used during the shooting are visible
Paddock meticulously planned the attack. He rented a suite that communicated with another one, in order to get a full overlook of the festival grounds. He brought with himself, hidden inside 10 range bags:
- fourteen .223-caliber AR-15-type rifles
- seven .308-caliber AR-10-type rifles
- one .308-caliber Ruger American bolt-action rifle
- one .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 342 revolver.
His arsenal included a large quantity of ammunition in special high-capacity magazines, holding up to 75, or up to 100 cartridges each. Some of the rifles were resting on bipods and were equipped with high-tech telescopic sights. All fourteen AR-15-type rifles were outfitted with bump fire stocks that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire rapidly, simulating fully-automatic gunfire. Audio recordings of the attack indicated Paddock used these stocks to fire at the crowd in rapid succession.
In addition to the firearms and accessories found in Paddock's hotel room, there was a note that reportedly included handwritten calculations about where he needed to aim to maximize his accuracy. The note contained only the actual distance to the target, his own elevation, and the bullet trajectory relative to the line of fire.
Ammonium nitrate, often used in improvised explosive devices, was found in the trunk of his car, along with 1,600 rounds of ammunition and 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of tannerite, a binary explosive used to make explosive targets for gun ranges. However, investigators clarified that while Paddock had "nefarious intent" with the material, he did not appear to have assembled an explosive device.
Profile[]
It seems like Paddock had inherited his father's inconstancy, as he wasn't able to maintain a stable job or relationship for too long. He lived of highs and lows and eventually, his gambling addiction caused him to fail professionally and economically. Alcohol and drug problems worsened his already unstable situation, driving him to a rampage.
He was stated to suffer from bipolar disorder.
Known Victims[]
All of the following were attacked during the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas Strip shooting.
Fatalities
- Hannah Lassette Ahlers, 34
- Heather Warino Alvarado, 35
- Dorene Anderson, 49
- Carrie Rae Barnette, 34
- Jack Reginald Beaton, 54
- Stephen Richard Berger, 44
- Candice Ryan Bowers, 40
- Denise Brenna Burditus, 50
- Sandra Lee Casey, 34
- Andrea Lee Anna Castilla, 28
- Denise Marie Cohen, 58
- Austin William Davis, 29
- Thomas Allen Day Jr., 55
- Christiana Mae Duarte, 22
- Stacee Ann Etcheber, 50
- Brian Scott Fraser,39
- Keri Lynn Galvan, 31
- Dana Leann Gardner, 52
- Angela "Angie" Christine Gomez, 20
- Rocio Guillen, 40
- Charleston V. Hartfield, 34
- Christopher James Hazencomb, 44
- Jennifer Topaz Irvine, 42
- Teresa Nicol Kimura, 38
- Jessica Lynn Klymchuk, 34
- Carly Anne Kreibaum, 43
- Rhonda M. LeRocque, 42
- Victor Loyd LeRocque, 55
- Jordan Alan McIldoon, 23
- Kelsey Breanne Meadows, 28
- Calla-Marie Medig, 28
- James Sonny Melton, 29
- Patricia Louis Mestas, 67
- Austin Cooper Meyer, 24
- Adrian Allan Murfitt, 35
- Rachael Kathleen Parker, 33
- Jennifer Marie Parks, 36
- Carolyn Lee Parsons, 31
- Lisa Marie Patterson, 46
- John Joseph Phippen, 56
- Melissa Viridiana Ramirez, 26
- Jordyn Nicole Rivera, 21
- Quinton Joe Robbins, 20
- Cameron Lee Robinson, 28
- Tara Ann Roe, 34
- Lisa M. Romero-Muniz, 48
- Christopher Louis Roybal, 28
- Brett Erin Schwanbeck, 61
- Bailey Dee Schweitzer, 20
- Laura Anne Shipp, 50
- Erick Steven Silva, 21
- Susan Marie Smith, 53
- Brennan Lee Stewart, 30
- Derrick "Bo" Dean Taylor, 56
- Neysa Christine Tonks, 46
- Michelle Ngoc Vo, 32
- Kurt Allen Von Tillow, 55
- William "Bill" Winfield Wolfe Jr., 42
- Kimberly Gervais, 57 (shot in the back and paralyzed; died of complications on November 15, 2019)
- Samanta Arjune, 49 (shot in left leg; died of complications on May 26, 2020)
Injuries
- 413 unnamed people (injured by gunfire or shrapnel)
- At least 454 unnamed people (injured indirectly)
On Criminal Minds[]
- Season Thirteen
- "False Flag" - The Las Vegas Strip Shooting was one of several similar incidents that conspiracy theorist Melissa Miller claimed were staged by the U.S. government in order to increase gun control.
- Season Fourteen
- "Twenty Seven" - Paddock was referenced again as an example of a mass shooter who was prepared to die.