LAS VEGAS — The high-stakes gambler who opened hearth on a live performance crowd at the Las Vegas Strip, killing 60 and injuring masses extra, was angry over how the casinos have been treating him in spite of his high-roller standing, consistent with FBI paperwork made public this week.
The cache of latest paperwork be offering the most powerful indication but of why Stephen Paddock performed the deadliest mass taking pictures in trendy American historical past.
A fellow gambler, whose title is redacted from the loads of pages of paperwork, advised the FBI that casinos had in the past handled excessive rollers like Paddock to loose cruises, airline flights, penthouse suites, rides in “nice cars” and excursions in wine nation.
But within the years main as much as the Oct. 1, 2017, mass taking pictures in Las Vegas, the pink carpet remedy had light, the gambler stated, and casinos even started banning some excessive rollers “for playing well and winning large quantities of money.” Paddock had been banned from three Reno casinos, the gambler said.
The gambler said he believed “the stress could easily be what caused” Paddock “to snap.”
The revelation comes years after the FBI in Las Vegas and the local police department concluded their investigations without a definitive motive, although both agencies said Paddock burned through more than $1.5 million, became obsessed with guns, and distanced himself from his girlfriend and family in the months leading up to the shooting.
In a statement Thursday, Las Vegas police defended their inconclusive findings and dismissed the importance of the documents released this week in response to an open-records request from the Wall Street Journal.
“We were unable to determine a motive for the shooter,” the statement said. “Speculating on a motive causes more harm to the hundreds of people who were victims that night.”
Paddock killed himself as SWAT officers closed in, left no manifesto or “even a note to answer questions” about his motive for the rampage, then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo said in 2018. Lombardo, now the governor of Nevada, declined to comment Thursday.
Kelly McMahill, a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department official who headed the criminal investigation into the shooting, said there was never any indicator that Paddock’s motive was anger at the casinos.
“There’s no way that LVMPD would have hidden any potential motive from our victims and survivors for five years,” McMahill stated.
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Associated Press author Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed.
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