The owners of two gun shops have stated that the Las Vegas shooter purchased firearms from them recently.
The owner of a shop in Mesquite, Nevada, says the Las Vegas shooter bought firearms there and never gave any indication that he might have been unstable.
Guns & Guitars general manager Christopher Sullivan said in a statement Monday that 64-year-old Stephen Craig Paddock showed no signs of being unfit to buy guns.
‘The man does not have a criminal history,’ he told the New York Times.
Chris Michel (left) owns Dixie GunWorx in St George, Utah. Christopher Sullivan (right) manages Guns & Guitars in Mesquite, Nevada. Both shops sold Las Vegas shooter Stephen Craig Paddock firearms
Sullivan said in a statement that Paddock displayed no signs of being unfit to buy guns nor did he have a criminal history in the state of Nevada
Paddock is suspected to have killed 59 people and injured at least 527 others after shooting at concertgoers from a Mandalay Bay hotel window in Las Vegas
The store was founded by Sullivan’s parents, Mike and Jan. Its website notes: ‘With Mike’s extensive knowledge of guns and guitars and Jan’s talent for making things happen, the store is thriving.’
Store spokesman Shawn Vincent declined comment on how many guns Paddock bought and said those details could only be shared with authorities.
Sullivan says all necessary background checks and procedures were followed under local, state and federal laws and that he’s cooperating fully with law enforcement.
Paddock lived in a house in a retirement community in the small city of Mesquite, about 90 minutes from Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, a Utah gun store owner has said Paddock visited his shop about a 40-minute drive from Mesquite and purchased a shotgun.
Chris Michel, the owner of Dixie GunWorx in St George, Utah, told St George News that Paddock was an ‘average, everyday Joe Blow. Nobody that stood out; no red flags’.
Pictured are exterior shots of Guns & Guitars (left) and Dixie GunWorx (right). Dixie Gunworx owner Chris Michel said that paddock was an ‘average, everyday Joe Blow. Nobody that stood out; no red flags’
He said that in the past, he has denied potential gun buyers their purchases if they appear to be ‘sketchy’.
‘None of the staff had any red flags whatsoever,’ he told the St George News.
The store’s website lists it as ‘a one-stop shop for all of your firearm needs’.
Authorities found at least 17 firearms, including two rifles with scopes on tripods, in the Mandalay Bay hotel room from which Paddock fired on thousands of people attending a country music festival.
Paddock lived in Mesquite, Nevada and had no prior criminal convictions in the state.
Sullivan is pictured posing with a cutout of US President Donald Trump
He purchased a home in a retirement community for just over $369,000 in 2015 according to public records.
He lived there with his 62-year-old girlfriend Marilou Danley, the same woman police announced they were seeking to question on Sunday night as they began their investigation into the horrific terror attack.
Paddock had both hunting and fishing licenses according to public records, as well as his pilot’s license, but no criminal record in the state of Nevada.
The retired accountant had worked as an internal auditor at Lockheed Martin for three years in the late 1980s, and was a manager and investor in apartment complexes located in Mesquite, Texas and California which made him millions according to his brother.
Paddock was also the son of Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, a serial bank robber who ended up on the FBI Most Wanted list back in 1969 when he escaped from federal prison in Texas while serving a 20 years sentence.
The FBI kept him on the list for the next eight years, and he was eventually found one year after he was removed from the list in 1978 while outside an Oregon Bingo hall.
The agency said that the fugitive had been ‘diagnosed as psychopathic’ and also had possible ‘suicidal tendencies.’
Paddock had committed suicide by the time police breached the door to the room from which the gunman had opened fire at the Mandalay Bay Resort just after 10pm on Sunday night.
It marked the end of what has now become the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, which left 59 dead and more than 500 injured.
The attack played out as Jason Aldean performed on stage to close out the third and final day of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, which was taking place across the street from the resort.
Over 22,000 people were in attendance at the event, and described the attack as ‘nonstop gunfire,’ which only stopped when the gunman went to reload his weapon.
It is not yet known what weapon or weapons the gunman used in the attack.