Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock emailed about bump stocks months before rampage: documents
Updated
The Las Vegas gunman sent emails discussing buying bump stocks — which can make semiautomatic rifles fire hundreds of rounds a minute — three months before killing 58 people and wounding more than 500 in October, media reports on search warrants have shown.
Key points:
- Unsealed court documents show Stephen Paddock sent emails about ammunition in July
- His Las Vegas rampage in October is the deadliest mass shooting in US history
- The documents, obtained by US media, provide no motive for the massacre
Bump stocks believed to be used in the massacre were found in the 32nd-floor hotel room from where Stephen Paddock fired down on a crowd gathered on a Sunday night for the finale of a country music festival held on the Las Vegas Strip.
The details suggesting the attack may have been planned months in advance were part of more than 300 pages of search warrants unsealed by a federal judge in Nevada, according to the Los Angeles Times, one of several publications that sought release of the documents.
The unsealed documents do not provide a motive for the killings, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Paddock shot and killed himself before police arrived at his room at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino on the night of the shootings.
The emails discussing bump stocks appeared to be sent between two accounts on July 6, both of which were run by Paddock, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Bump stocks are legal in the US and were originally designed to help people with limited mobility.
But investigators said the use of bump stocks on the night of the shooting allowed Paddock to fire rifles almost as though they were automatic weapons.
Investigators to determine who Paddock was communicating with
The Los Angeles Times reported that investigators were not sure why Paddock would send emails between accounts he controlled, or whether one was controlled by another person.
That would mean "investigators need to determine who was communicating with him about weapons that were used in the attack", one of the warrants said.
The documents also showed that Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, told investigators before they searched a house that the two shared that they might find her fingerprints on ammunition "because she occasionally participated in loading magazines", the Review-Journal reported.
The Los Angeles Times reported that investigators did find her fingerprints during the search.
In the days after the shootings, authorities called Danley a "person of interest."
Her attorney had said she had no inkling of Paddock's plans.
Documents posted online by the Review-Journal showed that FBI agents sought information from Microsoft and Facebook regarding accounts held by Paddock and Ms Danley.
Microsoft and Facebook did not immediately respond to emails and calls for confirmation.
An unsealed search warrant shows that an email sent July 6, 2017 from an account linked to Paddock to an address that he may also have controlled discusses the use of bump stocks "for a thrill", according to an affidavit posted by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The emails also mentioned trying out an AR-style rifle before purchasing one.
Police found 23 guns in Paddock's hotel room after the horrific shooting, as well as 19 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition found at his home.
ABC/wires
Topics: crime, murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, terrorism, united-states
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