Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock had a cell phone charger that did not match any of his phones inside the hotel room where he carried out the massacre.
The discovery adds confusion to the chain of events which led up to the attack as, despite its discovery, police insist there was no one else in the room with Paddock on October 1 or in the days which preceded the attack.
At a press conference on Friday, Las Vegas Metro Police Undersheriff Kevin C. McMahill said detectives were no closer to understanding what prompted Paddock’s killing spree.
He made an impassioned plea to anyone who may have information which could help solve the mounting mystery.
‘To date we have run down well more than 1,000 leads in this investigation. Some of it has helped create a better profile into the madness of this suspect but we do not still have a clear motive or reason why.
‘In the past, terror attacks or mass murder cases, motive was made very clear by a note that was left by a social media post, by a telephone call that was made.
Police are still looking into whether gunman Stephen Paddock (above with girlfriend Marilou Danley in 2013) had an accomplice who helped him plot his attack or knew about it
‘Today, in our investigation, we don’t have any of that uncovered. I wish we did.’
McMahill did not acknowledge the discovery of the phone charger, which was reported by NBC earlier on Friday.
He confirmed that Paddock was the only gunman, as suspected, and said there was no proof that anyone else accessed the room in the days before the attack.
Authorities are however still investigating whether someone knew Paddock was about to commit the worst mass shooting in US history.
‘We’re very confident there was not another shooter in that room. What we cannot confirm is whether anybody else knew about this incident before he carried it out,’ he said.
The only other named person of interest is Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, who was in the Philippines on Sunday night.
At a press conference on Friday, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Undersheriff Kevin C. McMahill said they were no closer to establishing a motive for the mass murder
Police have confirmed that Paddock was the only shooter in the Mandalay Bay suite where he carried out the attack and say no one else accessed the room beforehand
Paddock paid for her ticket there and also wired her $100,000 in cash but Danley, 62, believed it was his way of breaking up with her.
She flew back to the US on Wednesday at the request of police after earlier telling family that her conscience was clear.
On Friday, detectives gave further detail about some of the explosives that were found inside Paddock’s car which was parked in the hotel parking lot.
It contained 50lbs of tannerite – an exploding target which triggers mass explosions when shot at. It is made out of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder.
McMahill said he did not know what Paddock planned to do with the material but said it had not been modified in anyway to turn into an IED as was reported.
He also dismissed claims that someone else accessed the room using Paddock’s key card while his Hyundai was not in the parking lot, saying he had no knowledge of any such instance.
Along with the dozens of guns and ammunition found inside the room (above), Paddock had 50lbs of the explosives tannerite in his Hyundai in the underground parking lot of the hotel
Detectives are working through ‘voluminous’ amounts of surveillance footage from inside the hotel, he said, but have so far not been able to pin point any other suspect.
It was also revealed that hotel security guard Jesus Campos, who alerted police to Paddock’s specific location after being shot in the leg when he disturbed his killing spree, was on the floor investigating an open door on one of the rooms.
McMahill did not say whether it was Paddock’s room which triggered the alarm but he offered a clearer picture of how Campos found himself in the firing line.
‘Jesus Campos is a true hero. He was dispatched to what they call a door alarm on the 32nd floor,’ he said, clarifying that such an alarm was issued when a door was left ajar.
‘He went up there to investigate and as he was doing his job diligently, he came under fire from our suspect.
‘He was struck in the leg, and he turned around retreated. He notified his dispatch which was absolutely critical to us knowing the location as well as advising the responding officers as they arrived on that 32nd floor.
‘This was a remarkable effort by a brave and remarkable man. I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job of recognizing him and his actions. For that I apologize.
‘I want to clear the record. He is an absolute hero,’ McMahill added.