Casino magnate Steve Wynn said that gunman Stephen Paddock seemed like ‘a rational man’ and was known to the staff.
The billionaire CEO of Wynn Resorts was interviewed on ‘Fox News Sunday’ one week after after Paddock killed 58 people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas.
Wynn said Paddock and his girlfriend were well-known to his staff because he had been staying at the hotel for 11 years.
‘He’s been staying in Las Vegas since ’06, a frequent visitor, once or twice a month, to this hotel and others,’ Wynn said.
Casino magnate Steve Wynn was interviewed on ‘Fox News Sunday’ one week after after a gunman killed 58 people from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas. He said that gunman Stephen Paddock seemed like ‘a rational man’ and was known to the staff
Wynn said Paddock never raised a red flag. ‘The most vanilla profile one could possibly imagine,’ he said. ‘Every historical review of his behavior indicates that he was a rational man’
Paddock was holed up in his suite at the Mandalay Bay for three days before the shooting
According to Wynn, Paddock never appeared to be a problem.
‘The most vanilla profile one could possibly imagine,’ he said. ‘A modest gambler at least by our standards, you know, nothing serious, paid promptly, never owed any money anywhere in Las Vegas. He didn’t fit the profile of a problem or compulsive gambler.’
When asked about Paddock’s motive for the killing spree, Wynn said that his previous behavior suggested Paddock was ‘a rational man’.
‘This is a man who behaved rationally, privately, a little introverted, liked to play video poker. But he was a rational man,’ Wynn said.
‘Every historical review of his behavior indicates that he was a rational man, so was his girlfriend. And yet he prepared over an extended period of time, a totally irrational act,’ he said.
Employees who knew Paddock were stunned that he went on the murderous rampage.
‘This behavior, according to my employees, is as stunning, as unexpected as anybody, any of them have ever met,’ Wynn said.
‘Now, this sounds like someone either totally demented – a behavior which he never evidenced – or someone who’s sending a message,’ he said.
Paddock opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival killing 58 and injuring almost 500 in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history
Employees who knew Paddock were stunned that he went on the murderous rampage. ‘This behavior, according to my employees, is as stunning, as unexpected as anybody, any of them have ever met,’ Wynn said
Wynn said that he reassessed the security at his casino in 2015 when he developed a counter terrorism program
Paddock was reportedly holed up in his suite at the Mandalay Bay for three days.
Wynn said that the hotel has a policy that says if a room is on ‘do not disturb’ for more than 12 hours, staff investigate. In this case, though, that did not happen.
Wynn said that he reassessed the security at his casino in 2015 when he developed a counter terrorism program.
‘We had to recruit and expand security by tens of millions of dollars to cover every entrance, to retrain the entire workforce – from housekeeping and room service – and people are in the tower and observing people,’ Wynn said.
‘We had to cover every exit and every aspect of the building to see if we could identify and preempt any kind of terroristic or violent action. It is never perfect, of course, but what you can do, to use local vernacular: you can change the odds,’ he said.
Wynn also said that guests are not allowed to have guns in the hotel.
‘We don’t allow guns in this building unless they’re being carried by our employees and there’s a lot of them,’ he said. ‘But if anybody’s got a gun and we find them continually, we eject them from the hotel.’