Stephen Paddock rented at least one condo in the Las Vegas residential high-rise the Ogden the weekend before he opened fire on the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert from a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel Sunday night, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo confirmed Wednesday evening. Paddock rented the room during the Life is Beautiful festival, across the street from the Ogden, via AirBnB, Lombardo said, though he added it was unclear yet if Paddock was engaged in "pre-surveillance" to prepare for his massacre. Police are reviewing video from the Ogden to ascertain Paddock's activities.
Paddock's stay at the Ogden during the Life is Beautiful festival — which ran Sept. 22-24 and featured Lorde and Chance the Rapper — was first reported by The Daily Beast, citing a "senior law enforcement source" who's "not directly involved in the investigation but has been briefed on its progress." That source speculated that perhaps Paddock meant to fire into that concert but lost his nerve or changed his mind.
Paddock checked into Mandalay Bay on Sept. 28, requesting an upper-room floor with a view of the Route 91 festival, a person who has seen hotel records told The Associated Press, though he wasn't able to move into that room until Saturday, Sept. 30. Paddock's suite, which typically costs $590 a night, was comped because he was a good customer, the source said.
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Paddock "had to have some help at some point," Lombard said. "Maybe he's a super-guy ... maybe he's a super yahoo, was working out all this on his own, but it would be hard for me to believe that." Paddock's brother Eric told reporters earlier Wednesday that "this is 100 percent Steve, did this by himself. People can't seem to cope with that either. But Steve is a — was a — highly intelligent, highly successful person." He was stumped on a motive, though. "I hope to hell they find, when they do the autopsy, that there's a tumor in his head, or something, because if they don't, we're all in trouble," Eric Paddock said.
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