[protected-iframe id=”4e16ccebf89b6a9ffe2deb7da39b1e63-60970621-76566046″ info=”https://static01.nyt.com/video/players/offsite/index.html?videoId=100000005794914″ width=”650″ height=”435″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”]
For several months, Las Vegas and federal authorities have dug through thousands of leads on late gunman Stephen Paddock. While police still haven’t determined a motive, there was never any doubt that this was a meticulously planned act of mass murder. Yet the New York Times has now obtained and published the above surveillance footage of Paddock’s final days in Vegas — which amount to a week of last-minute preparations before he killed 58 people and injured hundreds more — that is chilling to behold.
In the footage, Paddock places the crowning touches on his years-long preparation for the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. He does so in a disturbingly nonchalant manner. Paddock is seen spending several days gambling at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino and casually visiting the gift shop and eateries like any other solo Vegas regular. All the while, he is friendly to the staff and tips them while they unwittingly help him haul his 21-suitcase arsenal up to his 32nd-floor hotel suite:
Over and over in the clips, Mr. Paddock is seen leaving the Mandalay Bay for his home in Mesquite, returning with a dark minivan loaded with suitcases. Over and over, valets take his keys; over and over, bellhops stack his luggage on gold carts, helping him transport at least 21 bags over the course of seven days. As they take the service elevator upstairs, Mr. Paddock chats with them. He cracks a joke. He tips.
They have no idea that the suitcases they are so conscientiously carrying are full of guns and ammunition.
The late-September footage, while revealing much about Paddock’s methodical and sinister ways, still ultimately does not deliver the answers investigators seek on why the bloodshed happened. Even with all the evidence stacked up and visible, the lingering mystery provides the spookiest takeaway of all.
(Via New York Times)