Investigators returned Sunday to search the home of the crazed Las Vegas gunman, as new details emerged about Stephen Padock's life before he opened fire on thousands of concertgoers last week.
The FBI-led search of Paddock's three-bedroom house on a cul-de-sac in a retirement community in Mesquite, NV., was for "re-documenting and rechecking," according to Mesquite Police Chief Troy Tanner, who accompanied agents as they served the search warrant.
"I don't think they're after anything specific," Tanner told The Associated Press. "They're going through everything and photographing everything again."
The home was first searched last Monday by Las Vegas police officers, who said they found 19 guns and several pounds of potentially explosive materials at the house that Paddock bought in early 2015. That initial probe came only hours after Paddock killed 58 people and injured nearly 500 others when he rained down fire on a crowd at a country music festival. Paddock also killed himself as police closed in on his location.
Las Vegas gunman's hotel room resembled an 'armory'
First responders speak out on what was inside Stephen Paddock's Mandalay Bay room; Will Car reports from Las Vegas.
Paddock's somewhat-estranged brother, Eric, arrived in Las Vegas late Saturday to meet with investigators, who are trying to piece together a timeline leading up to last week's rampage.
“I’m here to help them move forward with their investigation,” Eric told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I want to help them understand what they’re seeing.”
The Florida resident would not reveal what investigators asked him, but he said he believes he's not a suspect -- adding agents came to the airport Saturday to make sure he was safe.
Morning light reflects off the Mandalay Bay hotel and the broken windows where shooter Stephen Paddock conducted his shooting spree from the 32nd floor in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 3, 2017. (REUTERS/Mike Blake)
“I’m trying to get them to understand Steve’s mindset,” he told the newspaper. “I don’t want them to chase bad leads.”
Some details of Paddock's life emerged Monday as part of a 97-page court deposition obtained by CNN.
Paddock revealed he gambled all night, slept all day and viewed $1 million as pocket change as part of an October 2013 interview that was included in a civil lawsuit against the Cosmopolitan Hotel, where Paddock said he slipped and fell on a walkway.
Paddock said he gambled on average "14 hours a day, 365 days a year" at one point and described himself as the "biggest video poker player in the world."
"I'll gamble all night," he said in the documents. "I sleep during the day."
When he was asked if he visited the hotel pool, Paddock replied "I do not do sun."
He would also take Valium for anxiety, and would wager up to $1 million dollars per night, a figure which caused a lawyer to note, "That's a lot of money."
Paddock quickly replied: "No, it's not."
Las Vegas hotel and gambling magnate Steve Wynn, who owns several casinos Paddock gambled in, said Sunday his hotels have undertaken special security measures in recent years to identify potentially dangerous guests. Those measures include using magnetometers to detect significant amounts of metal and training housekeeping staff to report suspicious actions, such as placing a do-not-disturb sign on a door for extended periods.
"If a room goes on 'do not disturb' for more than 12 hours, we investigate," Wynn, whose hotels include Wynn Las Vegas and Encore told "Fox News Sunday" in an exclusive interview. "We don't allow guns in this building unless they're being carried by our employees, and there's a lot of them. But if anybody's got a gun and we find them continually, we eject them from the hotel."
Wynn said a scenario like Paddock's "would have triggered a whole bunch of alarms here. And we would have, on behalf of the guests, of course, investigated for safety, and it would have been a provocative situation."
Wynn said under a counterterrorism plan put in place in 2015 "We profile or inspect or examine everybody that enters the building."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
