A friend of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock has tearfully described him as a caring person who tried to make people happy.
Lisa Crawford had worked for Paddock as his property manager at one of his apartments for six years up until 2012 but said she maintained contact with her friend ever since.
She broke down during an interview with ABC News as she told of how Paddock was generous and funny.
‘He tried to make people happy; he tried to make people care and I don’t know what happened to him,’ she said.
Lisa Crawford, who worked for Stephen Paddock as his property manager for six years, tearfully described him as a caring person who tried to make people happy
Crawford shared photos taken a few years back of her with Paddock in Las Vegas with the Paris hotel in the background
Crawford, who lives in Dallas, Texas, last spoke to Paddock via email a few weeks ago when he checked to make sure she was okay given the hurricanes in the region.
‘I have read (the emails) over and over and over again,’ Crawford said.
‘I’ve even looked at some photos online of, I guess, him and his girlfriend; you know I was even trying to look into his eyes to see if I saw something that wasn’t normal, you know. No, I didn’t see anything.’
She shared photos taken a few years back of her with Paddock in Las Vegas with the Paris hotel in the background.
Crawford said she had already spoken to investigators regarding Paddock.
It comes as federal investigators returned to search Paddock’s home in Mesquite, Nevada on Sunday, while the officers who raided his hotel room door the night of the shooting gave a harrowing account of a barricaded door they had to bust through and the booby-traps they feared they’d find.
The search of Paddock’s three-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac in a retirement community was for ‘re-documenting and rechecking,’ said local police Chief Troy Tanner, who accompanied FBI agents as they served the search warrant.
The home was first searched Monday by Las Vegas police, who said they found 19 guns and several pounds of potentially explosive materials at the house that Paddock bought in early 2015.
Crawford, who lives in Dallas, Texas, last spoke to Paddock via email a few weeks ago when he checked to make sure she was okay given the hurricanes in the region
Federal investigators searched Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock’s Mesquite, Nevada home for a second time on Sunday (above, the home on October 3)
Paddock wrote a note (above in red) which is believed to be calculations to improve the accuracy of his firing from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel
The search came exactly a week after Paddock opened fire on a country music crowd, killing 58 and injuring nearly 500.
Meanwhile, the makeshift SWAT team of police officers who made it to Paddock’s door at the Mandalay Bay hotel casino 12 minutes after the first shots were fired described how they got there and the ‘gun store’ they found inside in an appearance on the CBS television program ’60 Minutes’ on Sunday night.
One of them said he hurried from police headquarters to the Mandalay Bay in cowboy boots and ditched them before ascending to the 32nd floor in search of the gunman.
The search of his home came exactly a week after Paddock opened fire on a country music crowd, killing 58 and injuring nearly 500
‘I just threw them in the casino,’ Detective Matthew Donaldson said. ‘That was slowing’ me down. I was faster barefoot, and I was gonna be more effective barefoot.’
The officers said they heard reports of gunmen on both the 29th and 32nd floor, so ‘we’re thinking multiple shooters at this point,’ Sgt. Joshua Bitsko said.
They zeroed in on the 32nd floor after Paddock unleashed about 200 rounds at a security guard outside his door. When they got to the stairwell door on that floor near Paddock’s room, they found he had taken special measures to slow them down.
‘He had screwed shut the door – with a piece of metal and some screws,’ Bitsko said. ‘Cause he knew we’d be coming out that door to gain entry into his door. So he tried to barricade it as best he could.’
But another officer had a pry bar and was able to easily pop it open, Bitsko said.
Authorities would later reveal that Paddock had surveillance cameras rigged inside and outside his room. But the officers didn’t know that at the time.
‘There’s a room service cart with wires going on it underneath the door,’ Officer Dave Newton said. ‘There was something black on top of the cart. So initially I’m, you know, I’m thinking, ‘This is a booby-trap. It’s, it’s going to explode’.’
Bitsko and Newton are K9 officers who had been training dogs when they got the call about Mandalay Bay. They said they were at a disadvantage approaching because ’cause he knew we were coming and we were going to have to come through,’ Newton said. ‘We didn’t know where he was going to be in that room.’
Members of the law enforcement team who were the first to enter Stephen Paddock’s hotel room after he opened fire on a crowd in Las Vegas (Pictured: Officers Casey Clarkson (L) and Matthew Donaldson on the top row. Bottom row are officers Dave Newton (L) and Sgt. Joshua Bitkso)
Authorities began returning the baby strollers, shoes, phones, backpacks and purses on Sunday that have been strewn for days across the huge crime scene
Bitsko said it was ‘like a deadly game of hide and seek,’ and thought ‘ ‘Man, I wish I had my dog with me,’ because, you know, it’s nice to have him lead a team.’
It turned out Paddock had already shot and killed himself when they finally entered.
Inside, Newton said he found ‘so many guns. So many magazines. Stacks and stacks of magazines everywhere. Just in suitcases all neatly stacked against pillars, around the room, all stacked up, rifles placed all throughout. All kinds of monitors and electrical equipment he had in there. It just looked like almost a gun store.’
Also Sunday, authorities began returning the baby strollers, shoes, phones, backpacks and purses that have been strewn for days across the huge crime scene that a week ago was home to 22,000 country music fans at the Route 91 Harvest festival.
Federal agents have spent the week collecting evidence amid the thousands of items that were abandoned in panic, some of them stained with blood.
‘Whatever was dropped when people started running, those items we’re collecting and we’re going to provide back,’ Paul Flood, unit chief in the FBI’s victim services division said at a news conference.
The items have been cataloged with detailed descriptions, and some have been cleaned of things including blood. They are now being returned to people at the Las Vegas Convention Center, starting with a few sections of the concert scene and expanding to others at a time to be announced later.
At 10.05pm, the Las Vegas Strip’s bright lights dimmed for about 10 minutes to mark the passing of exactly a week since the attack.
Most casinos along Las Vegas Boulevard darkened their marquees briefly Sunday. Officials say more than 50 properties around town also took part in the memorial.