Las Vegas Gunman Took Elaborate Steps to Hide His Tracks, New Documents Show

By ADAM GOLDMAN and JENNIFER MEDINAJAN. 12, 2018

Broken windows at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times

As he meticulously planned the Las Vegas attack, the man responsible for the worst mass shooting in modern American history took elaborate steps to stymie the inevitable law enforcement investigation, according to federal court documents unsealed on Friday.

The F.B.I. search warrants shed new light on the degree to which the gunman, Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people and wounded more than 500 others when he opened fire on a crowd from a hotel room in October, planned the attack and prepared for the aftermath. One of the warrants described how Mr. Paddock “destroyed or tried to hide digital media devices.”

[color="Red"]Investigators said he used anonymous communications devices, including a prepaid cellphone, to cover his tracks and employed a “level of sophistication which is commonly found in mass casualty events.”

“[color="Red"]Paddock planned the attack meticulously and took many methodical steps to avoid detection of his plot and to thwart the eventual law enforcement investigation that would follow,” the F.B.I. said.

Mr. Paddock’s motive for the attack remains unknown.

[color="Red"]The search warrants, which were approved by judges shortly after the shooting, said three cellphones belonging to Mr. Paddock were found in his room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, including two that investigators searched and one that they could not unlock. An F.B.I. agent wrote that he believed “if there were any information related to a potential conspiracy, it would be found within” the locked phone, which used a Google operating system.

[color="Red"]The search warrants detail how law enforcement focused on Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of Mr. Paddock. She has not been charged with a crime and has spoken to investigators several times, and her lawyer has said she was not aware of Mr. Paddock’s deadly plans. The investigation is continuing, and the warrants only reflect its early stages...

[color="Red"]...In an affidavit submitted as part of a search warrant application, an investigator said that access to Ms. Danley’s email account could “lead investigators to determine the full scope of Stephen Paddock’s plan and Marilou Danley’s possible involvement.” The authorities also requested information about several Instagram accounts that they believed were connected to Ms. Danley.

In their requests for data from Instagram, investigators said they were seeking “evidence showing the possession, use, purchase or sale of firearms, firearms accessories, ammunition or explosives by Paddock.” They also sought information about Ms. Danley’s “state of mind as it relates to the crime under investigation” and the identities of anyone who communicated with her about what would amount to violations of federal weapons laws.

[color="Red"]Ms. Danley deleted her Facebook account just hours after the attack, investigators wrote in their affidavit. At 12:30 a.m., about two-and-a-half hours after the shooting began, she changed the status of her account to private. By 2:46 a.m., she had deleted the account entirely...

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Article: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/us/las-vegas-attack-gunman-paddock.html