As investigating authorities piece together the life of Stephen Paddock, it is emerging that the Las Vegas shooter was a wealthy man with an impressive real estate portfolio and a high-stakes gambler who owned two planes and a lot of guns.
Paddock, 64, nestled in a 32nd-floor luxury suite of Mandalay Bay Resort on Las Vegas Boulevard on Thursday before he opened indiscriminate fire on a crowd gathered below on Sunday. Fifty-nine have been reportedly killed and several hundreds left injured, as the shooter pumped hundreds of bullets into the crowd that had gathered to attend the three-day Route 91 Harvest music festival. The number of guns found in the hotel room and in his house, 42 in all, indicates he was not a man of limited means.
According to Eric Paddock, the shooter’s brother, Stephen Paddock had amassed wealth through real estate and gambled in a big way. His brother recollected the older Paddock sharing an image of a slot machine that showed he had won $40,000. Stephen Paddock was described by his brother as a “guy with money” who liked to gamble, and that hotels often gave him free rooms and service. The shooter was worth $2 million, the Independent reported.
“It’s like a job for him. It’s a job where you make money. He was at the hotel for four months one time. It was like a second home.”
Records also showed Stephen Paddock had a pilot’s license and owned two planes . He earned huge sums of money from rental properties in Texas and California, Daily Mail reported. He had once worked as an auditor at Lockheed Martin. The Las Vegas shooter was living out life at a $400,000 retirement community home in Mesquite, Nevada, about an hour’s drive from Las Vegas Boulevard, where he was a regular.
While speaking with reporters outside his Orlando home, Eric Paddock recounted once his family had an entire floor at the Atlantis, courtesy of his brother’s relationship with the casino, according to The Independent .
The younger Paddock said his older brother rarely used his guns and the family was shocked after they learnt about the incident.
“No affiliation, no religion, no politics. He never cared about any of that stuff,” Eric Paddock said according to NBC News4 . “He was a guy who had money. He went on cruises and gambled.”
Eric Paddock (left) shared this picture of his brother Stephen Paddock (right). Says he feels like an astroid has hit his family. pic.twitter.com/3E7e0znC8r
— Mark Lehman (@MarkLehman6) October 2, 2017
Stephen Paddock’s neighbors in Florida and Nevada, who spoke with reporters, said the Las Vegas shooter’s appearance belied his wealth. They described him as a quiet person who kept to himself and had very little in material possessions in his homes. He would often leave home for long stretches before returning for a brief while, and remarkably quickly put up his properties for sale. Weeks before he meticulously planned and executed Sunday’s massacre, Paddock carried out large transactions in Las Vegas, more than tens of thousands on some days.
[Featured Image by David Becker/Getty Images]
