Stephen Paddock stayed in Mandalay Bay for a week, preparing for the mass shooting.
Newly released video from MGM Resorts, owner of Mandalay Bay, shows the final hours of Stephen Paddock’s life. Stephen Paddock is the Las Vegas high roller who killed 58 people at the Vegas Strip concert of Jason Aldean, which contained 22,000 concert goers. Paddock’s rampage left over 500 people wounded.
The Mandalay Bay massacre on October 1, 2017 was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. October 1st was a day that no one saw coming. The newly released video from MGM Resorts confirm just that, no one expected what happened that night in Las Vegas.
On that first day in October, Stephen Paddock began firing a semi-automatic rifle fitted with a bump stock from the comfort of his luxury suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. For days before the tragedy, Paddock lived inside his suite, methodically preparing for his awful last act.
Nearly six months later, investigators still are not certain what motivated Stephen Paddock. MGM Resorts this week released a video showing the last moments of Stephen Paddock and the final stages of his preparations for his infamous massacre.
Stephen Paddock: Anonymous Hotel Visitor
The video shows Stephen Paddock making his way around the hotel. He seems to go unseen by all around him. The killer wears neutral colored clothes and has a calm and unhurried temperament, which causes him to be completely unmemorable to other guests and staff members.
Paddock is always alone. Though he has plan that will kill many innocent people, he still manages to mingle with employees and shoppers in the gift shop. He chats with the valet and even cracks jokes with the bellhops as they carry his many suitcases to his 32nd floor suite. The suitcases are filled with very weapons, which he would unleash on the crowd just days after he first arrives at the hotel.
Stephen Paddock timed his use of Mandalay Bay’s staff at different times of the day and night, so none caught on that he was bringing large amounts of items into his suite.
Video Is Haunting to Watch
The videos show us just how thorough Paddock’s plan was. He thought through the steps towards murder in great detail, so no one would suspect a thing. Though his final steps in the days leading up to the horrific massacre were caught in such haunting detail, it still leads one nowhere nearer to figuring out why Paddock did what he did.
Readers might find the video painful to watch. Those people who were just blurs on the screens that display Paddock in his final moments have spoken of how they would later be haunted by him. Some may later be one of his victims while another be an unintentional accomplice that with a simple trip up the elevator, as they do every day, help in setting up for the mass murder that was soon to be committed.
The Lone Vacationer
The video show Paddock interacting with several hotel employees, but no guests besides one clip of where he lets allows a guest off the elevator before he hops on. Paddock arrived at the Mandalay Bay Hotel on September 25 and checks in at the V.I.P. desk. Every meal, he ate alone at the sushi restaurant in the resort. Sometimes, he made snack runs to the gift shop as any normal guest would and he gambles at the high-stakes video poker machines, even celebrating a $1,000 win.
Preparing for a Mass Shooting
Paddock is shown leaving the hotel multiple times to return to his home in Mesquite, where it is assumed he reloaded his minivan with more guns and ammunition. Over and over he leaves and returns to the hotel where bellhops help him unload suitcase after suitcase with no one blinking an eye. He manages to get assistance with transporting over 21 bags to his room with no questions asked. All while joking with the employees along the way as if the crime he knew he was about to commit did not faze him at all. Paddocks demeanor and movements are very sedate, deliberate, bland.
The last footage occurs on October 1, where Paddock heads up to his room with the last bit of luggage he would need to perform the deadly mass shooting for which he would always be known. Though the Mandalay Bay video of Stephen Paddock’s last days gets us no further to figuring out his ultimate motivation for the crime that left so many lives shattered, we do get a picture of a sociopath at work. It is apparent that the Las Vegas shooting was a week in the making, planned out in a cold-blooded and calculating manner.
