Las Vegas shooter: Who is Stephen Paddock?
Stephen Paddock carried out the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Here’s what authorities know so far about the 64-year-old Nevada man.
Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock’s autopsy records were released by the coroner’s office Friday but reportedly don’t provide an explanation into what drove him to shoot at a crowd of concertgoers on Oct. 1, 2017.
The documents, obtained by The Associated Press, said that traces of anti-anxiety medication were found in the shooter’s system. But because the drug was found in his urine, rather than in his blood stream, he was not under the influence of the medication, the report said. Paddock’s body also reportedly wasn’t affected by disease or anything that could have led to aggressive behavior.
However, the autospy did reveal that Paddock's brain was dotted with an unusually large number of small deposits that can accompany neurological disorders, the New York Times reported.
The autopsy showed Paddock, who was just more than six feet tall, was considered to be slightly overweight at 224 pounds, had high blood pressure and bad teeth. But he appeared to be healthy and nothing out of the ordinary was uncovered in his physical condition, even after experts at Stanford University conducted a microscopic brain examination, according to the documents.
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From his suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Paddock, 64, fired bullets into a sea of people attending the Route 91 country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds others were injured in what is considered the worst mass shooting in modern American history.
Before he could be reached by authorities, Paddock fatally shot himself in his hotel room. He did not leave a suicide note and investigators believe he was the only shooter.
Police found 23 rifles and a handgun in his hotel suite and more than a dozen of the rifles were fitted with "bump stock" devices that allowed rapid-fire shooting similar to fully automatic weapons.
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Paddock’s body was eventually cremated and his ashes were given to a family member in Florida.
The autopsy report was released, in accordance with a court order, by the Clark County coroner’s office. Also released last week were the autopsy reports of the victims killed in the shooting.
On Friday, a judge ordered the Associated Press and the Las Vegas Review-Journal to destroy their copies of an autopsy report for an off-duty police officer who was killed in the massacre, citing privacy concerns, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
That report was one of 58 that another judge had ordered released by the Clark County coroner in response to a different lawsuit.
The outlets were also barred from further reporting on the details in the autopsy report.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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