The gunman who killed 58 people in Las Vegas in 2017 was not fueled by any “single or clear motivating factor,” the FBI said, mirroring the conclusions of local police who said they could not determine what motivated the massacre.
The FBI findings made public Tuesday come more than a year after the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. According to police, gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire from a 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, killing dozens and injuring hundreds more before shooting himself in the head.
After the massacre — the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history — investigators delved into Paddock’s life before the gunfire. They pored over his finances, spoke to people who knew him and studied his movements. In the end, the Las Vegas police said in a report last summer, these investigators said they could not answer why he carried out the attack.
The question of motive often lingers after mass shootings, as some of the people victimized by the attacks describe a desperate search for answers.
The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit brought together a panel of experts to examine the attacker and try to look at his possible motivations, the bureau said. The FBI released a three-page summary of the panel’s findings on Tuesday, but much as local police came away without clarity, the federal group’s conclusions were no different.
“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 FBI said in its summary of the findings. Noting that most active shooters “rarely have a singular motive or reason for engaging in a mass homicide,” and instead have a tangled knot of issues that merge together, the panel “assesses that in this regard, Paddock was no different.”
The FBI panel also echoed other findings investigators have previously announced. They found that Paddock “conspired with no one; he acted alone,” and was not seeking any political, religious or social outcome through his attack. No “ideologically-motivated persons or groups” directed or inspired him, the FBI said, another rebuke to the Islamic State’s attempts to link itself to the attack.
The federal panel also echoed the determination that Paddock left behind no explanatory note or other communication explaining either the attack or his motivation. They found no specific grievance against a Las Vegas casino or any of his victims that may have prompted the attack.
The Las Vegas attack was horrifying in its scale and the breadth of its victims. Police said 869 people were injured, nearly half of them by gunfire or shrapnel, on top of countless others in the crowd of 22,000 at the music festival carrying psychological scars with them.
But the FBI group did determine that Paddock’s desire to kill himself was a key part of what happened, which the panel concluded was linked to his declining health as he got older. The panel found that “Paddock concluded that he would seek to control the ending of his life via a suicidal act,” a desire that was furthered by his hope to achieve some infamy through the attack. This facet echoes that seen by some other mass attackers, who similarly seek fame, but the Las Vegas panel linked this to Paddock’s father, a bank robber who was on the FBI’s most wanted list.
The FBI panel found that Paddock was similar to many other mass attackers, who have frequently concerned the people around them before the attacks. The panel also found that Paddock could be cruel to other people in his life, which it said included manipulating others. Authorities have previously said he spent considerable time preparing for the attack while seeking to thwart their investigation. In its conclusions, the FBI panel said that this likely gave Paddock “a sense of direction and control despite his mental and physical decline.”
Police have previously said an FBI analysis found that Paddock’s bank accounts were also declining before the gunfire. The Las Vegas sheriff called him “an unremarkable man” and “a narcissist [who] only cared about himself,” a conclusion the FBI panel appeared to endorse.
(c) 2019, The Washington Post · Mark Berman
{Matzav.com}
Typical cover up spin by the Compost.
Fake news.
The real question that remains is why has the alleged first officer or hotel employee who arrived at his hotel door, dissapear? Why hasn’t he answered any questions? Why don’t the all powerful FBI get ahold of him? What doesn’t the corrupt FBI want us to know? What is the corrupt James Comey covering up? Why do they keep promulgating the big lie that the alleged shooter shot himself in the head? That is not what happened.
Anyways, it was only right wing Republicans who got murdered so they got what was coming to them.
The same FBI who exonerated Hillary’s criminal activities before even looking at it.
Do the FBI really think people are that stupid to believe the official mainstream Paddock tale that a 64 year old man without any military experience was able to kill and main almost 700 people in less than 5 minutes through several windows in different rooms and having the clarity of mind to kill himself afterwords?
FBI is too busy covering up for its leaders.