On October 1, 2017, thousands of lives were changed forever as a lone gunman opened fire from a 32nd floor window at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino into a crowd of 22,000 innocent men, women and children attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fifty eight people lost their lives that night and more than 500 people were injured following the most deadly mass shooting in modern American history.
As the Las Vegas shooting investigation enters its second month and a nation still waits for answers as to why, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo sat down for an exclusive interview with KLAS 8 News reporter George Knapp and offered some insight into what may have driven shooter Stephen Paddock to commit such a heinous act of violence.
“Since September 2015, he’s lost a significant amount of wealth, and I think that might have been a determining factor on what he was determined to do,” Sheriff Lombardo said during his hour-plus long interview.
“This individual was status-driven based on how he liked to be recognized in the casino environment and how he liked to be recognized by his friends and family. So obviously that was starting to decline in the short period of time and that may have had a determining effect on why decided to do what he did,” the sheriff said.
“He was going in the wrong direction.”
Sheriff Lombardo also discusses the timeline of events that took place that night, addressing the fact that the shooter was able to fire his weapons for a full 10 minutes despite the fact that a hotel security guard had been shot prior to the start of gunfire and had already alerted authorities.
To watch the entire two-part interview, click here.