MESQUITE, Nevada - In the quiet cul-de-sac where Stephen Paddock lived, even his immediate neighbors say they didn't know him.
Some say they never set eyes on the man accused of spraying an outdoor concert with bursts of gunfire from high above in a Las Vegas hotel window on Sunday, killing 58 and wounding more than 500, before shooting himself.
Tracing Paddock's footsteps in Mesquite, the Nevada desert retirement community about 90 miles (145 km) northeast of Las Vegas, provides scant clues about why, according to authorities, he carried out the worst mass shooting in recent U.S. history. Hardly anyone noticed the man.
"Nobody knew him. I literally never saw him," said a neighbor who lives two doors down from Paddock's home and who declined to be named. "The house was so quiet, we thought they were snowbirds," he added, referring to retirees who spent the winter months in warm-weather places like Mesquite.
Garbage cans were put out on the street before anyone else was even awake, leaving no opportunity for casual chats with neighbors living just feet away. Yard work was done by gardeners. Pizza came directly to the door, and as far as anyone knew, Paddock never took part in bingo or bocce, or any of the social activities provided by the retirement community.
By all accounts, Paddock was a man of few words who never sought to interact with others beyond his live-in companion, Marilou Danley, a 62-year-old former casino employee described by authorities as person of interest in the investigation.
Neighbors immediately next to Paddock's mustard-colored stucco home, landscaped with stones and desert plants, displayed a sign on their door: "We did not know him."
The mangled remains of Paddock's garage door sat in his driveway, after authorities searched the home on Monday, uncovering a cache of 19 firearms, explosives and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Paddock, who worked as an apartment manager and aerospace industry worker over the years, was known as an avid gambler. He would venture out of his Mesquite home frequently to play poker at the local casinos, where regulars recalled his face but little more.
The 64-year-old would often stop at Starbucks, where baristas remembered him as quiet and "in his own world."
And according to one barista, Paddock appeared "rude" when he ordered a Mocha Frappucino for Danley, instead of letting her order for herself.
"He didn't let her talk," the employee said.
Paddock seemed more sociable to those who delivered him pizza from Domino's 14 times in recent months. A good tipper, Paddock paid cash and always ordered the same thing - two medium mushroom pizzas with extra cheese.
Sometimes he would tell the delivery person he was trying to lose weight and the pizza was only for his companion.
Domino's employee Jessie Givens recalled that Paddock would joke to her: "It's not fair! She gets to eat pizza - and I don't."
Danley, who was in the Philippines at the time of the attack, returned to the United States late on Tuesday, arriving in Los Angeles from Manila. She could reveal more clues about Paddock's motives when investigators interview her.
Paddock was known to have previous relationships, none of them recent.
Court records show that he got married in 1977. The couple separated in 1979 before their divorce was finalized in 1980 in Los Angeles County.
Five years later, Paddock married again, separating in 1989 and divorcing in 1990, also in Los Angeles County, according to court and public records.
In both cases, divorce papers cited irreconcilable differences. (Additional reporting By Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty and Nick Macfie)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
* Shooting took place during country music festival
* Police say shooter acted alone, no militant links
* Gunman killed, police searching for female associate (Updates death toll)
LAS VEGAS - At least 50 people were killed and hundreds hurt when a 64-year-old gunman armed with more than 10 rifles opened fire on a Las Vegas country music festival on Sunday night, raining down bullets from a 32nd-floor window for several minutes before killing himself.
The death toll, which police emphasized was preliminary, would make the mass shooting the deadliest in U.S. history, eclipsing last year's massacre of 49 people at an Orlando night club by a gunman who pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants.
About 22,000 people were in the crowd when a man police identified as Stephen Paddock opened fire from a room in the Mandalay Bay hotel, causing concertgoers to panic, some trampling on others as law enforcement officers scrambled to find the gunman.
Shocked concertgoers, some with blood on their clothing, wandered the streets afterwards.
Police said they had no information about Paddock's motive, that he had no criminal record and was not believed to be connected to any militant group. Paddock, of Mesquite, Nevada, killed himself before police entered the hotel room he was firing from, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters.
"We have no idea what his belief system was," Lombardo said.
Two senior U.S. government officials told Reuters that Paddock's name was not on any database of suspected terrorists and that there was no evidence linking him to any international militant group.
One of the two U.S. officials discounted a claim of responsibility that was made by Islamic State. There was reason to believe that Paddock had a history of psychological problems, the official said.
In its claim, Islamic State said that the gunman was a recent convert, according to the group's news agency Amaq. Its claim did not include the gunman's name and showed no proof. In the past, the group has also claimed responsibility for attacks without providing evidence.
Lombardo said there were more than 10 rifles in the room where Paddock killed himself. He had checked into the hotel on Thursday.
Police found several weapons when they searched Paddock's home, in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada, about 90 miles (145 km) northeast of Las Vegas, Mesquite police spokesman Quinn Averett told reporters.
The dead included one off-duty police officer, Lombardo said. Two on-duty officers were injured, including one who was in stable condition after surgery and one who sustained minor injuries, Lombardo said. Police warned the death toll may rise.
U.S. President Donald Trump offered his condolences to the victims via a post on Twitter.
"My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!" said Trump.
'JUST KEPT GOING ON'
Video of the attack showed panicked crowds fleeing as sustained rapid gunfire ripped through the area.
"People were just dropping to the ground. It just kept going on," said Steve Smith, a 45-year-old visitor from Phoenix, Arizona, who had flown in for the concert. He said the gunfire went on for an extended period of time.
"Probably 100 shots at a time," Smith said. "It would sound like it was reloading and then it would go again."
Las Vegas's casinos, nightclubs and shopping draw some 3.5 million visitors from around the world each year and the area was packed with visitors when the shooting broke out shortly after 10 p.m. local time (0400 GMT).
Shares of U.S. casino operators fell in morning trading on Wall Street, with MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay, down 3.5 percent. Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd, Wynn Resorts Ltd and Las Vegas Sands Corp were little changed.
Mike McGarry, a financial adviser from Philadelphia, was at the concert when he heard hundreds of shots ring out.
"It was crazy - I laid on top of the kids. They're 20. I'm 53. I lived a good life," McGarry said. The back of his shirt bore footmarks, after people ran over him in the panicked crowd.
The shooting broke out on the final night of the three-day Route 91 Harvest festival, a sold-out event featuring top acts such as Eric Church, Sam Hunt and Jason Aldean.
"Tonight has been beyond horrific," Aldean said in a statement on Instagram. "It hurts my heart that this would happen to anyone."
'WE'RE HORRIFIED'
The suspected shooter's brother, Eric Paddock, said the family was stunned.
"We have no idea. We're horrified. We're bewildered and our condolences go out to the victims," Eric Paddock said in a brief telephone interview, his voice trembling. "We have no idea in the world."
As with previous U.S. mass shootings, the incident sparked anger among advocates for gun control. The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right to bear arms, and gun-rights advocates staunchly defend that provision.
"It's time for Congress to get off its ass and do something," said U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, where 26 young children and educators were killed in an attack on a school in 2012.
"This must stop. It is positively infuriating that my colleagues in Congress are so afraid of the gun industry that they pretend there aren't public policy responses to this epidemic."
The rampage was reminiscent of a mass shooting at a Paris rock concert in November 2015 that killed 89 people, part of a wave of coordinated attacks by Islamist militants in which 130 people were killed.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
