LAS VEGAS — FBI officials were unable to determine a “single or clear motivating factor” behind alleged mass shooter Stephen Paddock’s decision to open fire on a Las Vegas crowd in 2017, law enforcement officials reported Tuesday.
Investigators failed to identify “one particular motive” behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, the agency announced.
“It wasn’t about MGM, Mandalay Bay or a specific casino or venue,” Aaron Rouse, the agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas office, told The Associated Press. “It was all about doing the maximum amount of damage and him obtaining some form of infamy.”
In a three-page summary of its key findings, the FBI described Paddock, who they say opened fire from a 32nd-floor window of the Mandalay Bay Hotel into a crowd of outdoor concert-goers on the ground below, as a loner with no religious or political affiliations. They claim the retired postal service worker had begun stockpiling weapons for more than a year prior to the attack.
64-year-old Paddock, who left behind no manifesto or suicide note at the scene, turned his weapon upon himself as police officials closed in, say investigators. He was found dead at the scene.
“This report comes as close to understanding the why as we’re ever going to get,” Rouse said. “He acted alone. He committed a heinous act. He died by his own hand.”
“If he wanted to leave a message, he would have left a message,” Rouse continued. “Bottom line is he didn’t want people to know.”
58 victims were killed during the October 1, 2017, attack. 900 others were wounded.
Las Vegas police officially closed their investigation into the mass shooting last August after what Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo described as hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of investigative work.
Lombardo vowed never to speak Paddock’s name in public again.
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