FBI releases report on Las Vegas shooting but finds no clear motive behind the attack

After a 16-month investigation, the FBI says it did not find a clear motive behind the Las Vegas shooting that left 58 people dead and hundreds others injured in 2017.

The bureau released its report Tuesday and said that its investigation into Stephen Paddock's attack did not find a "single or clear motivating factor," The Associated Press reports. While the shooter wanted to inflict "the maximum amount of damage," the FBI said he was not "directed, inspired, nor enabled by ideologically-motivated persons or groups."

However, the FBI did say that an "important aspect of the attack was Paddock's desire to die by suicide" and that he wanted to "attain a certain degree of infamy via a mass casualty attack," possibly being influenced by his father, who was a bank robber.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Because Paddock didn't leave a manifesto or a suicide note, the agent in charge of the investigation told AP that he "didn't want people to know" more about what motivated him and that this report "comes as close to understanding the why as we're ever going to get." This, the report says, is consistent with the shooter's character. "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 report says. Read more at The Associated Press.