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Suspected Las Vegas Shooter Identified By Authorities: Who Was Stephen Paddock?

By Lorenzo Tanos
Published on: 00:26 PST, Oct 2, 2017

Law enforcement officials have identified the alleged gunman in Sunday night’s mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock.

Not much is known at the present about suspected Las Vegas shooter Stephen Craig Paddock, but a report from Heavy compiled all the details currently available about the Mesquite, Nevada, resident’s previous addresses. Prior to moving to Mesquite in June of 2016, Paddock had lived in several parts of California and in Henderson, Nevada, since 1990, but had also lived in Reno, Nevada, from 2011 to 2016, and had a Melbourne, Florida, address from 2013 to 2015.

Although police spokesperson Quinn Averett told People that Paddock had “no prior run-ins” with Mesquite police, a separate report from CBS News noted that Paddock was “known to police” in his hometown and had a previous criminal history. Further specifics of this supposed criminal history have yet to be confirmed, but a search for “Stephen Paddock” on Spokeo reveals a result for a 64-year-old resident of Mesquite with more than 10 court records.

Other details revealed so far suggest that Paddock lived in a retirement community and did not previously serve in the military. As noted by CBS News, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo earlier told media outlets that Paddock might have acted by himself as a “lone wolf,” while unnamed law enforcement sources added that the Las Vegas shooting did not appear to be an act of terrorism.

Meanwhile, a report from Fox News suggests that authorities are “confident” they have located Stephen Paddock’s alleged companion at the time of the shooting, Marilou Danley. There’s still no word on the motive behind the tragic shootings, but retired FBI special agent John Iannarelli told Fox News that the shooting was “obviously well-planned,” as the suspects were able to book a hotel room facing the Route 91 Harvest Festival, which they might have targeted due to it being an open-air event.

Iannarelli, who had previously served as the FBI’s national spokesman, added that he believes the suspects were “well-trained” and in possession of expensive guns and ammunition and that Marilou Danley might have offered “inside help” to Stephen Paddock as an accomplice to the crime. He also stressed that it’s still too early to speculate on a possible motive, noting that the Las Vegas shooting is “exactly the type of attack” America had long been fearing.

[Featured Image by John Locher/AP Images]

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