Stephen Paddock kept his hotel room clean but made a housekeeper uneasy when she tidied up in the days before the gunman slaughtered 58 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.
These are among the details — some mundane, others chilling — of Paddock’s interactions with hotel staff and casino employees in new documents that police released about the October massacre at an outdoor Las Vegas concert.
About 1,200 pages of witness interviews were made public, including statements from victims after the shooting and others who encountered Paddock before he opened fire from his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
Here are some highlights from the newly released documents:
BEFORE THE SHOOTING
The housekeeper: One of the last people to see Paddock was the housekeeper who cleaned his suite about four days before the shooting. She told investigators Paddock stayed in his room and spent much of his time on the computer, eating soup from room service. “He (kept) staring at me,” she said.
Casino employees: A man who worked for Caesars Entertainment Corp. said Paddock was a regular guest for years, but he stopped coming after Caesars took out his favorite video poker machines.
He described Paddock as an odd guy who either came to one of the Caesars properties alone or with his girlfriend.
A host at another casino said Paddock was an introvert who kept to himself and never requested any prostitutes or drugs. He was only seen with his girlfriend, though he didn’t show her much affection, the host said. Paddock was easy to deal with, and he always paid his debt promptly, the host said.
He twice won contests with big payouts. One was for a car worth about $90,000, and Paddock took the cash equivalent instead. Another was for a $150,000 cash prize.
Restaurant encounter: Another witness claims he once saw Paddock at a Denny’s or IHOP. Paddock was with another man, the witness said, and they were talking about the 1993 standoff in Waco, Texas.
Stairwell incident around the time of the shooting: A Mandalay Bay facilities worker talks about receiving a phone call via dispatch from a security guard asking if they had any work on the 32nd floor because the stairwell is “bracketed shut.” The worker and an engineer headed to the floor. When they arrived, police were at the elevators.
THE VICTIMS
Some people described the fear and horror as the shooting unfolded at the outdoor concert headlined by country star Jason Aldean.
The terror: One man said he took cover to the right of the stage once he heard gunshots. The witness, whose name was redacted, said he ran during breaks in the gunfire.
“Then on the third round of shots is when I got, I got hit running, right in the back,” he told an investigator.
The man and his friends ran again until he couldn’t go on. Someone carried him to an ambulance, he said.
One woman said she pleaded with a friend to get up, but her friend wasn’t moving and her lips had turned blue. A man tried CPR as bullets came down, but the victim remained unresponsive. Another man eventually put a red bandana over the victim’s face.
A woman was at the concert with a female friend. Her friend was shot. An off-duty emergency medical technician ran up amid the gunfire and helped the woman drag her injured friend away. They got into a taxi and raced to the hospital.
One victim said the shooting “sounded to me as if there were helicopters directly above us shooting down at us. At that moment I thought this is a terrorist attack. They are shooting at us from up above.”
THE INVESTIGATION
Wednesday’s release of documents is the second in a series of investigation materials made public after media organizations, including CNN, went to court petitioning for access.
Earlier this month, Las Vegas police released nearly three hours of body camera footage, providing details on officers’ actions after the shooting.
The footage captured the moments before and after officers entered the gunman’s hotel room.
After Paddock opened fire on concertgoers, officers stealthily moved down the hallways with guns drawn, ordering hotel guests to stay indoors. “Lock the door, your door was open. There’s someone shooting inside the casino!” an officer warns people in one room as they sweep Mandalay Bay.
