Las Vegas sheriff: gunman planned to survive and may have had help

[Loyd]

Source: The Guardian

Paul Lewis in Las Vegas
Thursday 5 October 2017 03.39 EDT

Las Vegas police said there was evidence gunman Stephen Paddock intended to survive and escape his deadly attack at a country music festival on Sunday, and revealed that he also rented an apartment overlooking another music festival that took place in the city the previous weekend.

The disclosures were among several new details revealed by Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who also strayed into speculation that the man believed responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history had help.

“Do you think this was all accomplished on his own?” Lombardo asked, noting the arsenal of weapons the shooter amassed, and the discovery of explosives in his car. He added: “You’ve got to make the assumption he had to have some help at some point.”

He said that that the suspected killer, a 64-year-old retiree and gambler, rented a luxury room through Airbnb overlooking the Life is Beautiful music festival, another Las Vegas festival which occurred the week before the Route 91 Harvest music festival he eventually targeted.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/04/las-vegas-gunman-stephen-paddock-survive-police

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Well, we already know he had plenty of help from the NRA!

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

1. Once the security officer got to the front door

He knew that plan went out the window he had to have killed himself after he shot the officer. Police say he stopped shooting at that point then it was like 45 minutes before swat breached door.

[IronLionZion]

2. Theories are great and everyone can have a theory,

“Theories are great and everyone can have a theory,” said Aaron Rouse, who runs the bureau’s Las Vegas division, and took to the lectern immediately after the sheriff’s comments. “But I need to deal with facts. The sheriff needs to deal with facts.” He added: “He’s not going to make assumptions. I’m not going to make assumptions.”

The more loony side of the RW conspiracy nuts have been passing around "proof" that the dude likes to wear pussy hats and join anti-Trump marches.

[BigmanPigman]

3. They said he is intelligent but he must have known that

they would be able to figure out where he was from the sounds and flashes and smoke from all those guns.

[Nay]

15. Well, and the obviously broken windows. nt

[rmac3075]

4. Escape

The guy rented the room in his own name, the casino knew where he lived and what kind of car he drove, they even had a photocopy of his driver’s license. If he was planning to get away he was doing a pitiful job of it. Knowing that the authorities idea he had to have help I would take with a pound of salt.

[Cosmocat]

7. Yeah

Not sure how anyone "gets away" from that ...

[.99center]

35. "He checked into a hotel room with his girlfriend's identification,"

http://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-paddock-las-vegas-shooting-marilou-danley-2017-10
"He checked into a hotel room with his girlfriend's identification, police said, but she was found outside of the country and is not suspected to have played a role in the attack."

[treestar]

5. He has no evidence for the assumption he has to make

very poor at investigation.

[B2G]

18. They know far more than what they are saying publicly. nt

[treestar]

19. Could be

Just saw another OP with the guy saying the shooter did "everything possible" to get away.

I can only imagine him running as soon as he had made the last shots, going down to the garage and driving off as the police were coming up.

Making that he placed the police cameras so he could tell if he was there too late and had to shoot himself.

[RobinA]

34. No Freakin' Way

Have you ever been to a large Vegas casino hotel with a car? You do not run to the car from your room unless you are a marathoner. I timed my last Las Vegas car-to-room trek and it was 20 minutes one way. And that's with no pit stops. And it's not a straight shot. You're going through hallways, down steps, up steps, down and up elevators, across ramps, etc. NOT the pace I'd pick for a getaway.

[SharonClark]

24. That is reckless.

no evidence on the Sheriff's part, he's just wowed that someone could figure out how to accumulate so many weapons.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

6. Way to many odd things

I still say lvpd are holding back some major evidence.

[Girard442]

8. The sheriff wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't look under every rock.

Whether or not speculating publicly was a good idea is a different issue.

[atreides1]

10. The problem here

Is that the sheriff is tired and has no real answers, so he's beginning to make assumptions, this will only fuel the Alex Jones crowd and cause the investigation to head into a direction that may take it off a cliff of innuendos and conspiracies!!!

Those rocks he's looking under are probably imaginary!!!

[gtar100]

22. Sounds like a good recovery plan for the GOP and NRA.

Make the situation out to be full of conspiracy and crazy stories that even the truth becomes hard to believe. What else can they do with all this blood on their hands.

[SharonClark]

25. Yep.

[elehhhhna]

9. Also rented a room over Lollapalooza Chicago

[Princess Turandot]

11. My conjecture on the 'escape' plan...

He probably had something in his room that he would need for future activities. Perhaps a plane ticket. A lot of cash. A passport. Fake identity stuff.

The notion that he thought that he was going to escape obviously seems unrealistic now. But it's not like he was in a state of perfect rationality.

As to having help: they're now searching for a woman who had been seen with him during the week. That might be why that was brought up at the press conference yesterday.

[Nitram]

12. "The Life is Beautiful Festival?" That's almost too much irony.

[yankeepants]

13. Help? Perhaps just the bellhop that unknowingly lugged his arsenal into his room.

[Mrs. Overall]

14. Why is still being referred to as "gunman" and not "terrorist"?

[jO456]

16. Easy, he was a white male

[EX500rider]

36. Because terrorist have a political or religious agenda, he was simply a mass-murderer.

[Sunlei]

17. no. soon as his hall camera showed hotel security at door, he fired 200 rounds at hallway & suicides

Hotel security got hit in the leg (that was a small miracle he wasn't killed), no more rounds fired at crowd and took police about another hour before they broke down the door.

Right away someone leaked out a bunch of photos of the room, the domestic terrorists body, the guns with $40 'bump stocks' and a note on the table. He also had camera on in the room and streamed vid somewhere.

[treestar]

20. Wow, do we know what the note said?

That could reveal his motives.

[Sunlei]

28. pictures were to far away to read the page.

[B2G]

21. Yet not one word on the note or the video.

I've seen several pressers, and I don't recall the reporters asking about either of those.

The lack of curiosity is astounding.

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

26. Sheriff stated yesterday

Nothing of value on the note.

[csziggy]

27. The reporters last night did ask about the note

According to the sheriff it was not a suicide note. He would not say more about it and seemed to blow it off.

[B2G]

30. Then show it.

It's causing a ton of chatter on the web.

And the video he took during the massacre? What about that?

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

31. Hasn't been made clear if he was actually filming

But if he did I suspect a long time before the public sees that.

[B2G]

32. They aren't even speaking to what's on it.

And I've seen no on ask. Weird.

[Marthe48]

23. His help: NRA GOP

all complicit

[Watchfoxheadexplodes]

29. What is a "cheap" ticket?

From looks of it the girlfriend took several flights to different destinations.

[Grammy23]

33. The arguments that there is no way he could have thought hed escape are missing one point

The mind that conceived and carried out the deadly rampage is also the same mind that could have had delusional thinking going on that he would somehow escape. A normal, rational human being would not ever think he could do such a thing and race off into the night without ever being caught. Paddock, for whatever reason—yet to be determined—was not rational. The authorities and medical forensics will be looking at this case for a very long time because there has to be an answer somewhere either inside of this sick man’s brain or scattered among the remains of his life.

As for the sheriff’s comment about him planning or believing he could escape, he is in possession of far more evidence than has been released to the public. If they believe he may have had help, witting or otherwise, they probably need to keep certain facts quiet a while longer until they run out every lead on who that person or persons might be.

We also need to cut this sheriff some slack because from what I can tell, he has been going almost nonstop since Sunday night at 10:08. I imagine he has had little or no rest, not much food, too much coffee and too many questions that he just can’t answer right now. Plus, this man is probably not accustomed to giving press conferences on a world stage. Imagine yourself being thrust into the limelight of an investigation of this magnitude and you might make a few stumbles too. Mix in the FBI people in this story and this sheriff probably has stress out the wazoo.

Answers to this horrendous attack will come out eventually. In the meantime, we can argue among ourselves the particulars, but never forget this fact: You cannot expect rational behavior from an irrational mind.

P.S. Once again, the NRA & GOP has blood on their hands. That, too, is a fact.

[raven mad]

37. Thank you, Grammy23.

Most cops do the very best they can under the circumstances. I, too, believe he had help but what, when, etc. is up in the air at this point; anyone who did is running for their lives.