Mourners pay tribute at a makeshift memorial consisting of dozens of candles on the Las Vegas Strip.
New photos show the horrifying scene SWAT teams encountered when they blew the door off the Las Vegas shooter’s room and found him dead inside – as authorities reveal the mass murderer set up a camera on a room service cart outside the room to warn him when police arrived.
The photos, leaked Tuesday, show Stephen Paddock’s body on the floor of his suite in the Mandalay Bay resort and casino, which he used as a sniper’s nest to open fire on 22,000 innocent people attending a music festival across the street Sunday night.
Only the 64-year-old’s legs, torso and left arm are visible in the photo – and he wears a typical outfit for a retiree: a brown long-sleeve t-shirt, black slacks and slip on loafers with white socks. The only thing that reveals his nefarious actions are the black gloves he’s wearing.
On the floor next to him are two assault rifles, dozens of spent shells and a hammer – which he presumably used to shatter two windows in his two-room suite which he then used to shoot out of.
One of the assault rifles has a ‘bump stock’ added to it – making effectively fully automatic – allowing him to unleash hundreds of rounds per minute. The branding on the gun indicates it was made by Daniel Defense, a Savannah-Georgia-based company which produces variants of the AR-15 rifle, based off the U.S. Army’s M16.
Another photo shows how he pushed two sitting chairs together to form a cradle-like space to store at least two other rifles. Another AR-15-style rifle is seen at the foot of chairs with an extended magazine that would allow him to shoot for longer before reloading.
Behind a nearby pillar, about 15 magazines are piled in neat stacks. It’s unclear if they are loaded or spent.
A SWAT team located Paddock in his room about 72 minutes after the beginning of the deadly attack – but cops estimate he only fired on the crowd for nine minutes, starting at 10:08pm. He reportedly had cameras set up in the hallway to let him know when law enforcement arrived – including one on a room service cart.
Police say he shot at officers as they breached the door, but by the time they made it into the suite, Paddock had committed suicide.
Paddock killed 59 in the attack and injured 527. On Tuesday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said they had identified all but three of the victims, and that the injured county might be slightly off because one of the hospitals was double counting patients. However, he didn’t release a revised injured number.
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A newly leaked photo shows the Vegas shooter’s body after he committed suicide in his hotel room Sunday night
Stephen Paddock broke two windows in his Mandalay Bay hotel room on Sunday, and then opened fire on 22,000 attending a concert across the street. Fifty-nine people were killed and 527 injured
The photos leaked Tuesday show several assault rifles strewn across the room, which is littered with spent bullet casings. Behind the pillar above, neat piles of stacked magazines are seen
An investigator works in the room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where a gunman opened fire from on a music festival Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017, in Las Vegas
Two pictures leaked Tuesday afternoon appear to be the full unedited photos of two Paddock’s rifles obtained by Boston 25 earlier in the day.
Also on Tuesday, video was released showing debris strewn outside the shooter’s hotel room, from when the SWAT team blew the doors off the front door.
The video shows bullet holes piercing the left side of the suite’s double doors, confirming reports that Paddock shot at officers as they tried to break into the room. However, most of the door is knocked down from the SWAT team’s forceful – but necessary – entrance.
Earlier in the night, a security guard approaching the door had been shot in the leg by Paddock. Police were notified of that at 10:28pm; SWAT didn’t storm the room until 11:20pm. The guard is still in hospital and is expected to survive.
Directly behind the doors, inside the suite, the video shows yet another assault rifle set up on the ground on a bi-pod.
Outside the door, debris litters the carpeting in the hallway and crime scene tape covers the entrance to the room. A Do Not Disturb sign sits on the ground next to the front door, along with an Exit sign that has been struck down. Outside a neighboring door sits a used room service cart.
At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Lombardo confirmed that Paddock had cameras set up inside and outside of his room – including one on the food service cart.
The cameras outside the room appear to have been used to warn Lombardo when police were outside. A source told the Washington Post that the cameras outside the room were connected to a tablet which streamed live footage of the hallway.
Lombardo refused to comment on whether the cameras inside the room were used by Paddock to capture the massacre.
Pictured above is the first glimpse inside Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s hotel room, showing the debris left when SWAT teams stormed the room Sunday night and found the 64-year-old dead
On the ground behind the double doors, one of Paddock’s 23 firearms is seen set up on the ground with a bi-pod
To the right of the doors leading into Paddock’s room is a room service cart, covered with empty plates and a plate cover knocked to the ground in the chaos. Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Tuesday that the shooter set up a camera on the cart, which he used to keep an eye on the hallway
Two investigators walk down the hallway, away from the scene
Photos have emerged of two of the 23 firearms found in Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock’s hotel room. The weapon on the left has a bump stock added to make it fully automatic, a scope for accuracy and an oversize magazine to hold more ammunition. The weapon on the right has markings indicating it was made by Daniel Defense, a bipod for stability, and a telescopic lens
The Mandalay Bay resort and casino pictured above on Tuesday, as investigators continue to investigate the shooting
Investigators are still struggling to determine what caused Paddock, a retiree with only a traffic infraction on his criminal record, to carry out the attack.
But his behavior in the week before the shooting may provide clues to his dark plans.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that Paddock wired $100,000 to an account in this girlfriend Marilou Danley’s native Philippines sometime in the week before the attack, according to NBC News. Danley, 62, was in the Philippines when Paddock carried out the attack, but it’s unclear if the money was intended for her. She is now en route back to the U.S., to speak with authorities. Sheriff Lombardo called her a person of interest in a Tuesday press conference.
Paddock was in a relationship with Marilou Danley (left), who was out of the country at the time of the shooting. She is considered a person of interest, but is returning to the U.S. to speak with authorities
Sources also told NBC News that Paddock went on a gambling spree in the two weeks before the attack, gambling amounts between $20,000 and $30,000 on multiple occasions in that time period. In total, he gambled with at least $160,000.
However, it’s unknown whether those high-stakes gambles resulted in wins or loses for Paddock.
On the surface, Paddock didn’t seem like a typical mass murderer, said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI hostage negotiator and supervisor in the bureau’s behavioral science unit. Paddock is much older than the typical shooter and was not known to be suffering from mental illness.
‘My challenge is, I don’t see any of the classic indicators, so far, that would suggest, ‘OK, he’s on the road either to suicide or homicide or both,’ Van Zandt said.
The retired accountant had worked as an internal auditor at Lockheed Martin for three years in the late 1980s, and was a manager and investor in apartment complexes located in Mesquite, Texas and California, which made him millions, his brother said, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
Local police said they had no run-ins with the man, not even traffic violations, and his brother described him as ‘just a guy who lived in Mesquite who drove down and gambled in Las Vegas and… liked burritos’.
So the discovery that he had used 10 suitcases to methodically move an arsenal up into his Mandalay Bay room over the preceding weekend came as a shock to those who knew him.
Eric Paddock said he thought his brother was far from a gun fanatic.
‘He had a couple of guns but they were all handguns, legal… he might have had one long gun, but he had them in a safe,’ he said.
He said he didn’t know about the 23 guns that were found in the hotel room.
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VEGAS GUNMAN’S DEVASTATING ARSENAL REVEALED
Las Vegas butcher Stephen Paddock amassed 42 firearms before carrying out his massacre, 23 of which were found inside the hotel room he used for his massacre.
The majority of those weapons were rifles, though at least one was a handgun.
Two rifles had been modified with tripods and scopes, greatly increasing their accuracy, and at least two had been modified to allow for something close to fully-automatic fire.
Thousands of rounds of ammunition were also found, ranging in caliber from .223 – similar to 5.56 rounds which are standard for NATO troops – to .308, which are typically used for hunting rifles.
While the exact extent of Paddock’s cache is not yet clear, we know it included:
1) Four DDM4 rifles, the LA Times reports. Manufactured by Daniel Defense, the rifle features a muzzle flash suppressor, making it harder to tell where the weapon is being fired from. It also has a freefloat rail allowing for a variety of attachments including scopes and grips to enhance stability. The rifle costs $1,900 if bought new
2) Three FN-15 rifles. Made by FN America, they also feature a muzzle flash suppressor and ‘H buffer system’, which reduces recoil and increases accuracy. FN-15 refers to a series of rifles, rather than a specific weapon, which range from smaller carbines to replicas of the military-issue M16. It is not known exactly which version was owned by Paddock. They range in price from $1,000 to $2,000, if bought new
Also in his terrifying arsenal were three of these FN-15 rifles, as well as guns made by Sig Sauer. Some of the semi-automatic guns had been fitted with bump-stocks that allow for, essentially, fully automatic fire. They’re priced around $1,300
3) At least one AK-47. A Russian-designed assault rifle, it was used by the country’s military from 1945 and is still used by armies and rebel groups around the world. Known for its simplicity and reliability, it fires 7.62x39mm rounds which makes it less accurate but more devastating than other semi-automatic rifles. It can retail for as little as $600
4) At least one Colt AR-15. This rifle is known as the most popular in America, with an estimated 8million in homes around the country. It is also gaining a dubious reputation as the weapon of choice for mass shooters, from movie theatre killer James Holmes to San Bernardino terrorist Omar Mateen
5) Two ‘bump stocks’. While not weapons in themselves, these stocks modify semi-automatic weapons allowing for something close to fully-automatic fire. They fit over the stock of a semi-auto rifle, and function by allowing the weapon to ‘bump’ back and forth as it is fired using the weapon’s recoil. Each bump brings the user’s finger down on the trigger, firing a round. This allows users to skirt around regulations prohibiting fully-automatic weapons.
Inside the nest: The smashed windows from the suite taken out by Paddock at the Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas
A woman cries while hiding inside the Sands Corporation plane hangar after the mass shooting on Sunday