The FBI has closed its investigation into the Oct. 1, 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, NV, concluding the perpetrator Stephen Paddock lacked a “single or clear motivating factor” while massacring 58 individuals.
As police closed in on Paddock's high rise suite in the Mandalay Bay hotel, the man responsible for the single deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history committed suicide, and thus never disclosed why he carried out the attack.
On Tuesday, in a three-page brief, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit explained that Paddock's isolated nature included keeping his intent to open-fire on the Route 91 Harvest festival a secret. "Throughout his life, Paddock went to great lengths to keep his thoughts private, and that extended to his final thinking about this mass murder," the synopsis read.
It was also concluded that the shooter was not motivated by religious, political, or social factors. The federal body also concurred that Paddock acted alone. “It wasn’t about MGM, Mandalay Bay, or a specific casino or venue,” Aaron Rouse, the special agent leading the FBI’s Las Vegas office, explained. “It was all about doing the maximum amount of damage and him obtaining some form of infamy.”
According to the FBI, failing to define a single motivating factor isn't unusual. After agents and behavioral specialists spent months trying to determine the nature of Paddock's rampage, it was determined that the 64-year-old assailant was someone who was motivated by violence and a "desire to die by suicide."
Paddock was a retired Postal Service worker, accountant, real-estate investor, and high-stakes gambler. Approximately one year before carrying out the attack, Paddock reportedly began stockpiling the 47 weapons he would later use on Oct. 1, 2017. The FBI suggests that his father, a notorious bank robber who was at one point on the FBI Most Wanted list, may have inspired Paddock's heinous actions. "Paddock's father created a façade to mask his true criminal identity and hide his diagnosed psychopathic history, and in so doing ultimately achieved significant criminal notoriety," the federal unit explained.
Despite Paddock's motive remaining unknown, how he was able to get his hands on the weapons is no mystery at all. He lived in a country where obsessively stockpiling firearms isn't just allowed; it's aggresively defended by blind supporters of the 2nd ammendment.
