Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend: 'It never occurred to me' he was planning massacre

A memorial for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting.

(Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

published 5 October 2017

Marilou Danley, the live-in girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, said on Wednesday she had no idea he was planning Sunday night's massacre.

"He never said anything to me, or took any action I was aware of, that I ever understood to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen," Danley said in a statement read by her attorney Matthew Lombard. "I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together with him." Danley arrived in Los Angeles Tuesday night after a trip to the Philippines, where she was visiting family, and is being interviewed by federal investigators.

Danley, who described Paddock as being a "kind, caring, quiet" man, said he purchased a "cheap" plane ticket for her, and while she was in the Philippines wired money to buy her family a house. "Honestly I was worried that first the unexpected trip home, and then the money was a way of breaking up with me," she said. "It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone."

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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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