Stephen Paddock tried to buy a special sort of ammunition before the Las Vegas shooting, that would have let him target specific victims on the ground.
A law enforcement official told CNN that the 64-year-old shooter attended a gun show in Phoenix in recent weeks, where he tried to buy tracer ammunition.
Tracer ammunition, which is legal, lights up as it’s fired, making a direct line to its target – allowing shooters to target specific objects in the dark.
However, the vendor that he bought from didn’t have any tracer ammunition so he left empty handed on that front. Instead, he bought other other ammunition at the show.
A law enforcement source told CNN that Stephen Paddock tried to buy tracer ammunition before the Mandalay Bay massacre, that would have let him target victims in the dark. Above, a view of soldiers at Ford Hood, Texas firing rounds with tracer ammunition in 2009
Because he didn’t have tracer ammunition, Paddock would have been left to fire indiscriminately at the crowd below.
Paddock killed 58 in the massacre and wounded 489 before committing suicide.
Paddock (pictured) tried to buy tracer ammunition from a vendor at a Phoenix gunshow in recent weeks but the vendor didn’t have any to sell
They found 23 firearms in his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay hotel, which he used as a sniper’s nest to target the Route 91 Harvest Festival taking place across the street Sunday night.
He had scopes fitted on some of the guns, but it’s unclear how useful those would have been in the dark.
Twelve of the guns had so-called ‘bump stocks’ added to make them fully automatic.
Police believe Paddock planned to make an escape due to the 50 pounds of explosives and 1,600 rounds of ammunition that were found in his car, parked in the hotel parking lot.
They found another 26 weapons in two of his homes in Nevada – one in Mesquite and one in Reno.
Investigators combing through his background for clues remain stumped as to his motive.
The profile developed so far is of a ‘disturbed and dangerous’ man who acquired an arsenal over decades, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said. But investigators have been frustrated to find that he lived a ‘secret life,’ Lombardo said, ‘much of which will never be fully understood.’
A former executive casino host at the Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa in Reno said Paddock had a ‘god complex’ and expected quick service without regard to how busy the staff was at the time.
‘He liked everybody to think that he was the guy,’ John Weinreich said. ‘He didn’t boast about anything he had or anything. It was just his demeanor. It was like, ‘I’m here. Don’t cross me. Don’t look at me too long.’ ‘
The weekend before the massacre, he rented a room through Airbnb at the 21-story Ogden condominiums in downtown Las Vegas and stayed there during a music festival below that included Chance the Rapper, Muse, Lorde and Blink-182.
‘Reasons that ran through Paddock’s mind is unknown, but it was directly at the same time as Life Is Beautiful,’ the sheriff said.
Police were reviewing video shot at the high-rise to check Paddock’s movements. His renting the condo was curious because, as a high-roller, he could have easily gotten a free room at one of the casino hotels on the Vegas Strip.
Police breached Paddock’s room inside the Mandalay Bay, which he had been using as a sniper’s nest, and found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound
In early August, Paddock booked a room at Chicago’s 21-story Blackstone Hotel that overlooked the park where the Lollapalooza alternative music festival was being held, though there’s no evidence he actually stayed there, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
The official was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity after being briefed on the investigation.
The hotel confirmed a Stephen Paddock made a reservation but said he never checked in.
Lollapalooza draws hundreds of thousands of music fans every year to Grant Park.
Although Paddock killed himself as a SWAT team closed in, the sheriff said it appeared he had planned to survive and had an escape plan. Lombardo would not elaborate on the plan.
The coroner’s office in Las Vegas would not release details of its autopsy on Paddock. Some behavioral experts have wondered whether he suffered from some kind of brain abnormality or had a terminal illness that prompted him to lash out.