The man who shot at a crowd of concertgoers while perched from his 32nd floor hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, was an unknown outsider to his neighbors in a close-knit retirement community in a Mesquite, Nevada, neighborhood.
Reuters reports that Paddock’s neighbors in Mesquite, Nevada, knew little about Paddock, who mostly kept to himself.
“Nobody knew him. I literally never saw him,” an unnamed neighbor said, according to Reuters. “The house was so quiet, we thought they were snowbirds.”
Other neighbors reported Paddock placed his garbage cans on the curb early in the morning before anyone else was awake, and had landscapers take care of his yard work. Paddock never chatted with neighbors in his retirement neighborhood and never engaged in community activities, such as bocce or bingo.
When authorities searched the gunman’s home on Monday, they uncovered thousands of rounds of ammunition, along with explosives and 19 firearms.
Paddock reportedly frequented a nearby Starbucks on numerous occasions. A barista who remembered him said he hardly talked and wouldn’t allow his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, to place her own order or mingle. As with his neighbors, the barista couldn’t offer much information about the man who seemed to keep to himself.
Although he frequented casinos and had a reputation for gambling, casino employees and “regulars” only knew him as a face in the crowd.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, at least 59 people were killed on Sunday evening, and another 400 injured after Paddock, shot into a crowd at a Las Vegas Jason Aldean concert, with what authorities believe to be an assault rifle. SWAT teams used explosives to get inside Paddock’s hotel room. The suspect was found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wounds when authorities found him.
Authorities are calling the traumatic incident a “lone wolf” attack. So far, the motive is unknown.
Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.
[Feature Photo: Handout]
