Jan 13, 2018

More details of the FBI's probe into the Las Vegas shooting revealed

Haley Britzky

Flowers are placed as the FBI inspects the perimeters of Mandalay Bay Hotel after the attack in Las Vegas. Photo: Bilgin Sasmaz / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Stephen Paddock, the man who killed 58 people at a Las Vegas country concert and wounded hundreds more, took "many methodical steps to avoid detection," according to the FBI as reported by the New York Times.

Why it matters: His motive is still unclear, but the unsealing of FBI search warrants on Friday reveal more details of their investigation including how Paddock got his weapons and the FBI's focus on his girlfriend.

Per the search warrants, Paddock had three phones in his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. One of them was locked, and an FBI agent said "any information related to a potential conspiracy" would be found on the locked phone, the NYT reports.
The unsealed documents also reveal the FBI's focus on Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley. She has worked with investigators and repeatedly said she was not involved in Paddock's plan, and did not know of his intentions.
Per the Times, investigators wrote in the affidavit that Danley made her Facebook account private a little over two hours after the shooting began, and then deleted the account all together a couple of hours after that.
The FBI sought access to Danley's email account, and requested information regarding "several Instagram accounts" believed to have connection to Danley.
Paddock "relied on the internet to buy many of the items used in the attack," the NYT reports, including guns and ammo. The court documents suggest that Paddock purchased a "holographic weapon sight" used in the shooting from Amazon.

The FBI found "hundreds of rounds of spent ammunition" in his hotel room, along with "body armor, range finders, and a homemade gas mask," per the Times.
Paddock also was corresponding with an email account about the weapons he used in the attack, which may have belonged to him. An FBI agent wrote that obtaining a search warrant for one of the email accounts would shed light on Paddock's plan, as it could have been in control of another person, the NYT reports.
It was also revealed that Paddock was possibly treated for "unidentified medical conditions."

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More details of the FBI's probe into the Las Vegas shooting revealed

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