Las Vegas terrorist Stephen Paddock may have been planning to strike two months earlier at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago.
The gunman, who slaughtered 58 people and injured 489, had allegedly booked two hotel rooms overlooking the festival area where 400,000 people gathered over four days in the beginning of August.
Among the attendees at this year’s Lollapalooza was former President Barack Obama’s oldest daughter Malia, and acts on stage included The Killers, Chance the Rapper, Muse and Lorde.
Mystery: Stephen Paddock, 64, had booked himself into the a hotel in Chicago, across the street from Grant Park where the Lollapalooza festival is held
Booking: Paddock had reserved two rooms at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago during the time of the event in August this year – two months before the Las Vegas massacre
Paddock had booked two rooms at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, across the street from Grant Park where Lollapalooza has been held since 2005, TMZ reports.
Both rooms overlooked the festival area, and Paddock would have had a similar view of the crowd as he had in Las Vegas during the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Sunday.
Lollapalooza was held from August 3 to 6 this year, and Paddock’s two rooms were booked from August 1st to 6 and from August 3rd to 6.
TMZ says Paddock, 64, never showed up for his bookings at the hotel.
Chilling: Paddock would have had a similar view of the Lollapalooza crowd as he had at the Mandalay Bay hotel (pictured) during the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on Sunday
Candles are lit at a makeshift memorial for the 58 people killed in the massacre on Sunday
People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gunfire was heard. Witnesses said they initially ducked down at the command of police, but panic then took hold and there was a stampede
First responders and bystanders carry an injured person to an emergency station located at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Ave – one block north of the shooting
Meanwhile, Las Vegas police has revealed that Paddock, who killed himself after carrying out his brutal bloodbath, had originally hoped to survive his shooting and flee justice – and likely had an accomplice.
Paddock had planned to escape the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel after firing on the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo revealed in a press conference Wednesday.
Lombardo declined to reveal why he believed that Paddock had an exit planned, but said he was confident in the claim – and said that his scheme was so elaborate that he would have to be a ‘super hero’ to pull it off alone.
He said Paddock lived a ‘secret life’ and ‘meticulously planned on the worst domestic attack in United States history.’
‘Stephen Paddock is a man who spent decades acquiring weapons and ammo and lived a secret life, much of which will never be fully understood,’ Lombardo said.