Las Vegas Shooter Was Losing Money, Sheriff Says

'I think that might have been a determining factor on what he was determined to do'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 3, 2017 12:47 PM CDT
Sheriff: Las Vegas Shooter Had Lost Money Since 2015
In this Oct. 9 photo, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo discusses the festival mass shooting at Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Las Vegas.   (Erik Verduzco /Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)

What pushed Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock to kill 58 people and wound more than 500 others last month? It's still not clear, but in a new interview with Vegas' 8 News Now, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo says that while the 64-year-old was "status-driven based on how he liked to be recognized in the casino environment and how he liked to be recognized by his friends and family," he had "lost a significant amount of wealth" since September 2015 and was showing signs of depression, the Los Angeles Times reports. Lombardo also said Paddock's girlfriend Marilou Danley remains a "person of interest." "For this individual to do it at a certain point in time and to do it all with such robust action, you would think that Ms. Danley would have some information associated with that," he said, per the New York Post.

Lombardo also attempted to further clarify the shooting timeline, noting that the security guard who was shot, Jesus Campos, called in to report a barricaded door to the Mandalay Bay's 32nd floor at 9:59pm. He made it to the 32nd floor a few minutes later by walking to the 33rd floor and taking the elevator back down, was shot outside Paddock's door, and called in to report that. Lombardo didn't give specific times for those developments, but said Paddock started shooting on the crowd at 10:05pm and that two Las Vegas Metropolitan PD officers were able to make it to the 32nd floor about 10 minutes after that; they had been on the scene already for another call. He called it a "pretty amazing" response time and noted that Paddock had stopped firing by the time they arrived, per the Washington Post, so their response then became "slow and methodical." (More Las Vegas shooting stories.)

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