The Las Vegas Metro Police Department has released their final report on the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, which remains the worst mass shooting in US history. The question everyone wants to know the answer to, why Stephen Paddock did it, is not answered in the report. But the report does offer some clues as to what he was trying to do and even some possible hints as to why.
I spent a few hours reading the vast majority of the 187 page report. I did skip some of the autopsy information as it was not interesting or enlightening but I did read everything else. I will post the entire report below via Scribd below so you can read it as well. Fair warning though, there is a very graphic photo of Paddock's dead body so if you are sensitive to such things do not read the full report.
A few random thoughts after reading the report:
-It seems fairly clear that Paddock operated alone. His comings and goings were well logged and investigated and if there were others helping him they probably would have been found. There was mention of one witness saying he saw Paddock with a short Asian woman though that was dismissed by investigators. Paddock also had meals for two delivered to his room but another witness said he often ordered two meals himself. Reports of multiple shooters seem very unlikely at this point given what I read.
-Paddock seemed to have no strong political beliefs and there was no mention of possible motive from the police. The only clues were that his girlfriend said he didn't like Obama and hoped Trump would be able to do something about illegal immigration. He was also an atheist but didn't appear to be a militant one (this is something that I haven't seen reported elsewhere). Paddock's brother seemed to think that he did it just for the idea of being famous for being the worst mass shooter in history, but offered no evidence of that opinion. (This is the part of the report I think is either misleading or wrong)
-Paddock's plan seems to have failed. He did not use most of his ammo and guns and his plans to plant explosives he had in his vehicle and blow up the airplane fuel tanks failed. Though he killed and wounded an absurd amount of people had those other plans worked out it could have been even worse.
-Paddock killed himself but it's very unclear why. He still had so much ammo and the cops weren't to his room yet. Indeed, the cops slowed down after he shot himself because they felt it was a "barricaded suspect" case at that point instead of an active shooter. He could have kept firing for a least a minute or two before the cops rushed in, and given his firepower he could have fought it out with them fairly well, but he chose to end his life instead. That doesn't make sense to me.
-He really made some dumb choices. Even though the .308 AR-10's he had would have been more deadly and dangerous then the .556 AR-15's he used with bump stocks he didn't seem to fire them that much. Most of them had full magazines and the ones that were fired weren't fired into the crowd but at the fuel tanks instead. That plan was unlikely to work anyways but it makes sense to use the heavier rounds for that goal. But why not use the .308's on the crowd?
-A possible clue in regards to motive that was mentioned before this report is the fact that Paddock worked for various aerospace companies like Lockheed Martin. And those fuel tanks? I checked on Google maps and they are right across from the Janet Airlines terminal. Janet is infamous for being the government owned airline that shuttles Area-51 employees from Las Vegas to the base. A closer look at the area tells me that an explosion there would have likely left the terminal alone though it would have immolated any cars in the parking lot, so it's a very thin link, but I did think it's a rather big coincidence. Perhaps Paddock was angry with his former employers? Or perhaps he was a conspiracy nut? Who knows?
-Paddock had child pornography on his computer. Draw your own conclusions about that.
-I hadn't realized that Paddock had targeted police specifically during his rampage. Though he didn't shoot at police inside Mandalay Bay, the report claims that he shot at police cars and officers and managed to kill and wound a few of them. I had just assumed that the police killed and wounded in the attack died randomly and not because they were targeted.
-Frustratingly the report mentioned that the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit had worked up a criminal profile for Paddock which wasn't included in the report. We will likely see that profile when the FBI releases their report around the anniversary of the attack in October but I really would have liked to read it myself.
-The money that Paddock wired to The Philippines has been accounted for. He wired the money to his girlfriend who he sent there in anticipation of his attack. This makes the ISIS theory a lot less convincing.
-Paddock seemed to have done a dry run of his attack at the Ogden Hotel during the Life is Beautiful festival. It is not clear why he did not attack there as his plan seemed ready to go.
-Paddock's health was in a decline and he was taking Valium. The second part was well known but I hadn't realized that his friends and family noticed a change in appearance and behavior due to his health.
There is a lot more in the report. What do I think of it? I think it's a fairly comprehensive report that details very well what exactly Paddock did. Unfortunately it doesn't answer the biggest question of all, which is why he did it. I trust most of this report to be accurate but that's the one thing I have questions about. I think that the authorities probably do have a decent idea of why Paddock killed 59 people and wounded hundreds more but for whatever reason they aren't telling us...
You can read the report below.
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