Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend won't face charges: sheriff

[January 20, 2018]  By Keith Coffman and Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) - The girlfriend of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock, who fatally shot 58 people in October, is unlikely to face charges but the FBI was investigating another person in the case, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said on Friday.

The shooters live-in girlfriend, Marilou Danley, had told the FBI she had no idea Paddock was "planning violence against anyone" before he rained bullets from a Las Vegas hotel room on a country music concert below, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Her attorney, Matt Lombard, could not be reached for comment on the preliminary police report released on Friday.

Las Vegas police would not identify the person being investigated and FBI officials could not be reached for comment.

Danley became a focus of the investigation for having shared his retirement community condo in Mesquite, Nevada, northeast of Las Vegas, before leaving the United States for the Philippines in mid-September.

Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, who oversees the Las Vegas police department, said the report still did not shed light on why Paddock strafed an outdoor concert on Oct. 1 with gunfire from his 32nd-floor suite of the Mandalay Bay hotel on the Las Vegas strip.

"This report is not going to answer every question or even answer the biggest question as to why he did what he did," Lombardo said.

Paddock did not leave behind a suicide note or a manifesto explaining his actions, Lombardo said. However, the sheriff added a large loss of money by Paddock just before the shooting could be a factor.

The 81-page preliminary report on the shooting also includes details of Paddock's "disturbing" search history on his computers, including his study of ballistics and SWAT tactics, Lombardo said. Police also recovered several hundred child pornography photographs on Paddock's laptop, the report said.

Marilou Danley, whose live-in boyfriend carried out a shooting rampage at a Las Vegas concert is seen in this Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department photo released in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. October 2, 2017. Courtesy Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

According to the police report, Danley recalled Paddock behaving strangely during a stay at the Mandalay Bay in early September 2017.

The two were staying in room 60-235 and she observed Paddock constantly looking out the windows of the room which overlooked the Las Vegas Village venue, the report says. Paddock would move from window to window looking at the site from different angles.

Danley also described how Paddock’s demeanor changed over the course of the last year as he became “distant” and “germaphobic,” the report said.

Paddock's primary care doctor described him as odd with little emotion, said he may have been bipolar but Paddock would not discuss it and refused antidepressants, the report said.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Susan Thomas)

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