Oct. 9 (UPI) — Investigators in Las Vegas are hoping the brother of mass killer Stephen Paddock might shed some light on a possible motive for the attack a week ago that killed nearly 60 people.
Eric Paddock, who traveled to Las Vegas over the weekend to speak with authorities, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal has was interviewed for five hours after he arrived from Florida on Saturday.
“I’m here to help them move forward with their investigation,” he said. “I want to help them understand what they’re seeing.”
Eric Paddock’s arrival comes at a time when Las Vegas police still don’t have a firm grasp on what led his brother to commit the deadliest mass shooting attack in U.S. history.
Stephen Paddock started shooting at a country music festival from a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. Fifty-eight people died and hundreds were injured in the attack, which police say lasted for several minutes. Investigators said he killed himself before officers could reach his room.
Eric Paddock said he plans to have the shooter’s body cremated, and will use his brother’s assets to create a trust for the victims of the attack.
Officials said they have so far followed more than 1,000 leads in the case. A motive, however, remains elusive — even as new details continue to emerge about the gunman’s behavior.
CNN reported Monday that Paddock had interacted with authorities in 2013 as part of a civil lawsuit against the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, where he said he’d slipped and fell two years earlier.
Paddock said he’d been prescribed Valium “for anxiousness” and described himself as the “biggest video poker player in the world.” When asked if he used the hotel pool, Paddock said, “I do not do sun.”
In the 97-page court deposition, the gunman said he regularly received alcoholic beverages and was “comped” hotel rooms most of the time, which are both standard practices by as Vegas casinos to draw major gamblers.
“I’ll gamble all night, I sleep during the day,” he said in his testimony.
CNN reported that the deposition has been turned over to the FBI.
Authorities have been questioning a number of people who knew Paddock, including his girlfriend and family members. Monday, a woman who formerly worked for the shooter described him as a man who “liked to make people happy.”
“He actually cared about everybody,” Lisa Crawford, who worked for Paddock managing an apartment, told ABC News. “He tried to make people happy. He tried to make people care and I don’t know what happened to him.”
Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman offered a different view.
“I know he is rotting in hell in eternal damnation, and I hope that Mengele is his roommate,” he told CNN.
The city of Las Vegas honored the victims of the shooting Sunday night by darkening its famous Las Vegas Boulevard for 11 minutes, the length of time of the attack. Every casino and business switched off their lights to pay tribute.
