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1,000 leads later, authorities still stumped by Vegas gunman

LAS VEGAS (AP) — More than a week after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history investigators are stumped about the key question: What led a 64-year-old high-stakes gambler to kill 58 people and wound hundreds of others at a country music concert?

It’s an answer they may never find.

The FBI and Las Vegas police have sorted through more than a thousand leads and examined Stephen Paddock’s politics, finances, any possible terrorist radicalization and his social behavior. By Monday they had repeatedly searched his homes and interviewed his brother, girlfriend and others he’s done business with.

But the typical investigative avenues that have helped uncover the motive in past shootings have yielded few clues about Paddock, a professional gambler who spent nearly every waking hour playing video poker at casinos. That closeted existence has covered the trail for investigators.

“This individual purposely hid his actions leading up to this event and it is difficult for us to find the answers to those actions,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Monday, conceding he’s frustrated.

The FBI has brought in behavioral profilers as they continue questioning Paddock’s live-in girlfriend, Marilou Danley, about his gun purchases and what she may have noticed about his behavior, Lombardo said.

Paddock had stockpiled 23 guns, a dozen of them modified to fire continuously like an automatic weapon inside his 32nd-floor Mandalay Bay hotel room, where he busted out two windows before opening fire on the crowd.

The sheriff changed the timeline of the shooting Monday, explaining that a security guard in the hotel’s hallway responding to a report of an open door heard drilling from Paddock’s room. Paddock, who had installed three cameras to monitor the approach to his suite, opened fire through the door, spraying 200 shots down the hall and wounding the guard, who alerted other security officials.

A few minutes later, Paddock began the 10-minute attack on those on the ground.

Previously the sheriff had said the guard’s arrival in the hallway may have caused Paddock to stop firing. He said Monday he didn’t know what prompted Paddock to end his deadly gunfire.

The gunman had shot at aviation fuel tanks, stocked his car with explosives and had personal protection gear as part of an escape plan, authorities said Monday.

Paddock’s life has remained somewhat of a mystery and most people who have interacted with him said nothing really stood out about him.

“It’s his actual normalcy that makes him a fascinating study,” said David Gomez, a former FBI profiler.

The small group people who knew Paddock well has said the one-time IRS agent and the son of a notorious bank robber did essentially nothing except gamble, sleep and travel between casinos. Investigators are sifting through every piece of Paddock’s life from birth to death, Lombardo has said.

“Every piece of information we get is one more piece of the puzzle,” the sheriff said Monday.

Experts say it is extremely unusual to have so few clues more than a week after a mass shooting. In past mass killings or terrorist attacks, killers left notes, social media postings and information on a computer, or even phoned police.

In this case, there was no suicide note, no manifesto, no evidence the gunman was motivated by any ideology and Paddock has no clear presence on social media, police said.

The FBI is working around-the-clock and a “comprehensive picture is being drawn as to the suspect’s mental state,” the sheriff said. Though at this point, they haven’t found any one particular event in Paddock’s life that triggered the shooting, he said.

Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said Monday an autopsy was done but could not discuss results of whether it yielded any clues to Paddocks actions.

But even as investigators work to try to figure out what might’ve led Paddock to commit the shooting, there may never be a clear answer.

“Sometimes there isn’t an understandable explanation for why someone commits a horrific crime,” Gomez said.

What has become very clear to investigators is that Paddock meticulously planned the attack. He requested an upper-floor room overlooking the country music festival and set up cameras inside and outside his room to watch for approaching officers.

After the shooting, police found a piece of paper on a nightstand in Paddock’s hotel room that contained a series of numbers that helped him calculate a more precise aim, accounting for the trajectory of shots being fired from that height and the distance between his room and the concert, a federal official said. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the details of the ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

In not leaving behind an easily accessible manifesto, Paddock defied societal expectations that mass murderers will want their disturbed motives known to the world, said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler and hostage negotiator.

“The reason you want to engage in an attack is you want to be promoting your extremist ideology — you want publicity,” said Erroll Southers, director of homegrown violent extremism studies at the University of Southern California. “You want people to be afraid of what you believe and what you do.”

But although most killers may want to take credit for their act, Paddock might have reveled in the riddle he’s presented for investigators, Van Zandt said.

“He may even find some solace knowing that, ‘I’ve left so few footprints, they’re going to have a helluva time figuring out who I am.’ And that, in his challenged mind, might bring him a terrible level of satisfaction,” he said.

Despite the absence of easy answers, investigators may still be able to fill out a portrait of Paddock’s mindset in the coming weeks, Van Zandt said.

“Instead of a eureka moment, I think what investigators are doing is they’re putting an ounce of information at a time on the scale,” he said.

Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo discusses the Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Las Vegas, Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. Law enforcement authorities on Monday made a significant change to the timeline of the mass shooting, saying the gunman shot a hotel security guard before he opened fire on concertgoers. (Erik Verduzco/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, left, with Aaron C. Rouse, special agent in charge for the FBI in Nevada, discusses the Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Las Vegas, Monday, Oct. 9, 2017. Law enforcement authorities on Monday made a significant change to the timeline of the mass shooting, saying the gunman shot a hotel security guard before he opened fire on concertgoers. (Erik Verduzco/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Flowers, candles and other items surround the famous Las Vegas sign at a makeshift memorial for victims of a mass shooting Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in Las Vegas. Stephen Paddock opened fire on an outdoor country music concert killing dozens and injuring hundreds. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A woman visits a makeshift memorial for victims of a mass shooting Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in Las Vegas. Stephen Paddock opened fire on an outdoor country music concert killing dozens and injuring hundreds.(AP Photo/John Locher)
People pray at a makeshift memorial for victims of a mass shooting Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in Las Vegas. Stephen Paddock opened fire on an outdoor country music concert killing dozens and injuring hundreds. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A hearse containing Las Vegas shooting victim Christopher Roybal arrives at McCarran International Airport, Monday, Oct. 9, 2017, in Las Vegas, for a short flight to Southern California. His friend and employer, David Harman, told The Associated Press that Roybal served in Afghanistan and adopted a friend’s bomb-sniffing dog after the friend was killed by an improvised explosive device. (AP Photo/John Locher)
FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, file photo, a woman sits on a curb at the scene of a shooting outside of a music festival along the Las Vegas Strip. Months after Facebook and Google announced major efforts to curb the spread of false stories masquerading as news, it’s still cropping up, most recently in the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting. Turns out it’s not so easy to re-engineer social media systems geared to maximize engagement over accuracy, especially when trolls and pranksters are scheming to evade those controls. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017 file photo, a Las Vegas police officer stands by a blocked off area near the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas. On Sunday, Oct. 1, Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival killing dozens and wounding hundreds. Paddock spent hours in casinos. and was known for betting big on video poker and staring down fellow gamblers. There is no indication, though, that any particular grievance set him off. But details that have surfaced so far about the one-time IRS agent and son of a notorious bank robber, are clues, at least, to his mindset. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 2, 2017 file photo, investigators load bodies from the scene of a mass shooting at a music festival near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip on in Las Vegas. On Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival killing dozens and wounding hundreds. Paddock spent hours in casinos. and was known for betting big on video poker and staring down fellow gamblers. There is no indication, though, that any particular grievance set him off. But details that have surfaced so far about the one-time IRS agent and son of a notorious bank robber, are clues, at least, to his mindset. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)
FILE - This undated photo provided by Eric Paddock shows his brother, Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock. On Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017, Stephen Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival killing dozens and wounding hundreds. Paddock spent hours in casinos. and was known for betting big on video poker and staring down fellow gamblers. There is no indication, though, that any particular grievance set him off. But details that have surfaced so far about the one-time IRS agent and son of a notorious bank robber, are clues, at least, to his mindset. (Courtesy of Eric Paddock via AP)
FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 2, 2017 file photo, drapes billow out of broken windows at the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, following a deadly shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas. Police who have yet to find Stephen Paddock’s motive for the massacre said Friday, that they will enlist the public’s help. The FBI’s Aaron Rouse says billboards will ask people with credible information to call the agency at 800-CALL-FBI. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)