President Donald Trump arrived in Las Vegas Wednesday morning to meet with first responders and some survivors.
“So I just want to congratulate everybody. It’s incredible,” Trump said while visiting a hospital.
Trump praised emergency responders after visiting some of the wounded who are still hospitalized. Trump complemented law enforcement for bravely ending the shooting spree before it got any worse, even though investigators are still working to answer the question of what motivated such a deadly one-man battle plan by 64-year-old Stephen Paddock.
“I can tell you it’s a very sick man and he was a very demented person,” Trump said.
The local sheriff now says investigators have “a couple good leads” in determining what led to the Sunday night massacre.
They have determined Paddock purchased 33 rifles in four different states.
In Los Angeles, the FBI questioned Paddock’s girlfriend Marilou Danley. He had sent Danley to the Philippines, according to her sisters to be far away at the time of the attack. Danley, considered a “person of interest” by police, has an attorney at her side.
“How could she not know what was going on in her own house with these weapons? She had to know something, at the very least question him as to where are these weapons coming from, why do you have all these weapons,” said Steve Gomez, a former FBI counterterrorism official.
“Many families will go to bed tonight in a world that is now empty. Our souls are stricken with grief. We stand together to help you carry your pain. We will never leave your side,” Trump said.
The FBI and Las Vegas police are looking into whether a concert by Chicago’s Chance the Rapper was Paddock’s original target.
Chance performed last month in Las Vegas at an outdoor venue similar to where Paddock killed 59 people on Sunday from a sniper’s perch on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort.
Now, investigators are looking into whether Paddock tried to get a room in a high-rise building overlooking the Sept. 22 “Life is Beautiful” concert, which featured Chance and Lorde, similar to the perch he fired from at Mandalay Bay on Sunday night.
Authorities have not said whether that concert last month was an active target that went awry or a scouting mission. Las Vegas police confirm the alternate attack possibility is part of their ongoing investigation.
When SWAT officers raided Paddock’s room at the Mandalay, where thousands of rounds were fired on a Jason Aldean country concert, Paddock was alone.
SOURCE: Chuck Goudie, Ross Weidner, Barb Markoff and Christine Tressel
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