LAS VEGAS (Scripps News Las Vegas) — A report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation reveals new details about the investigation into the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre in Las Vegas.
The 300-page report detailed Stephen Paddock’s movements in the weeks leading up to the shooting, including room reservations and multiple receipts and return orders for firearms.
FILE – In this Oct. 2, 2017, file photo, Eric Paddock holds a photo of himself, at left, and his brother, Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, at right, outside his home in Orlando, Fla. Stephen Paddock a high-roller gambler who opened fire in 2017 on concertgoers in Las Vegas had lost tens of thousands of dollars while gambling weeks before the mass shooting and was upset with the way the casinos had been treating him, according to FBI documents made public this week.(AP Photo/John Raoux, File)
The report also details interviews with more than 30 individuals — including casino employees, former landlords and acquaintances — interviewed by investigators in the aftermath of the shooting.
Several people interviewed said Paddock “largely kept to himself” and showed “no interest in politics.” However, one witness claimed to have spoken with Paddock online and claimed that he was a frequent gambler with an estimated “bankroll of $2 to $3 million.”
The witness told FBI investigators that Paddock would often spend “6-8 hours a day” in casinos. The FBI also spoke with an employee at Tropicana, who claimed Paddock would visit the property every few months and described him as a “prolific” video poker player.
“Paddock frequented the Atlantis, Peppermill and Tamarack Junction casinos in Reno, and was banned from all three,” the report states.
According to the report, the witness told investigators that Paddock was personally displeased with what he perceived as changing attitudes toward “him and other high-rollers” at various casinos in recent years.
“In previous years, casinos treated the high rollers very well and would frequently treat them to free cruises, airline flights, penthouse suites, tours in wine country, and rides in nice cars,” the witness told investigators. “About three years ago, the casinos changed their views of how the high rollers would be treated and started banning them from certain events, hotels, and sometimes certain casinos.”
This witness “believed the Mandalay Bay hotel was not treating Paddock well because a player of his status should have been on a higher floor in a penthouse suite,” FBI investigators noted in the report.
FILE – Broken windows from the Mandalay Bay resort and casino room from where Stephen Paddock fired on a nearby music festival are shown in Las Vegas, Oct. 3, 2017. Paddock a high-roller gambler who opened fire in 2017 on concertgoers in Las Vegas had lost tens of thousands of dollars while gambling weeks before the mass shooting and was upset with the way the casinos had been treating him, according to FBI documents made public this week. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
In the week leading up to the shooting, the FBI found that Paddock lost approximately $38,000 at an unidentified casino. The witness claimed that the stress of the loss and changing attitudes were enough to cause Paddock to “snap.”
When Las Vegas Metropolitan Police released their final report on the investigation, then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Paddock’s monetary losses in the two years leading up to the shooting amounted to approximately $1.5 million.
In September of 2017, his assets totaled approximately $530,000, Lombardo told reporters, down from $2.1 million two years earlier.
Much of that money was spent in 2017, Lombardo noted. In the year prior to the shooting, investigators learned Paddock had spent nearly $100,000 on firearms alone.
While police noted Paddock’s monetary losses in their final report on the investigation, his mental state has been called into question. FBI investigators noted Paddock “may have been treated for yet-unidentified mental conditions.”
An autopsy revealed Valium, an anti-anxiety medication, in Paddock’s system at the time of the shooting. And in a 2013 deposition, Paddock testified he occasionally suffered from anxiousness, CNN reported previously.
To this day, neither the FBI nor Metro police have officially determined Paddock’s motive for killing 58 people and injuring more than 500 others at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on Oct. 1, 2017.
In a statement to media on Thursday, Metro police re-iterated that Paddock’s motive for the shooting is unknown.
“Speculating on a motive causes more harm to the hundreds of people who were victims that night,” officials stated.
FILE – This Oct. 2017 file photo released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Force Investigation Team Report shows a number of guns in the interior of mass shooter Stephen Paddock’s 32nd floor room of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. Paddock a high-roller gambler who opened fire in 2017 on concertgoers in Las Vegas had lost tens of thousands of dollars while gambling weeks before the mass shooting and was upset with the way the casinos had been treating him, according to FBI documents made public this week. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP, File)
Police further said they do not believe these FBI documents will shed new light on the case:
“The LVMPD and the FBI conducted a joint investigation of the 1 October shooting. At the conclusion of that investigation in 2018, we were unable to determine a motive for the shooter. Speculating on a motive causes more harm to the hundreds of people who were victims that night. The FBI documents that were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request, are from the original investigation, we do not believe they will shed new light in the case.”
The FBI records reviewed by KTNV are available publicly on the agency’s website here and here.
This story was originally published March 30 by KTNV in Las Vegas, an E.W. Scripps Company.
