Las Vegas Shooter’s Behavior Left Mandalay Bay Hotel Room Maid Jittery, Newly Released Police Reports Say

Las Vegas police on Wednesday released more than a thousand pages of documents containing witness statements of the Las Vegas shooting.

Mandalay Bay hotel suite Stephen Paddock shooting
In this photo taken by Las Vegas Metro police following the Stephen Paddock mass shooting on Oct. 1, 2017, the disarray of his hotel suite, along with numerous firearms, can be seen in the aftermath of the tragedy. (Image: LVMPD)

As well as testimonies from traumatized survivors, the documents — as outlined by a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal — include accounts of those who interacted with gunman Stephen Paddock before the shooting. While they offer some new details of Paddock’s eccentricities, there is little insight into his state of mind at the time of the atrocity, or any clue as to his motive.

On October 1, 2017, Paddock perpetrated the worst mass shooting in American history when he opened fire from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay onto a country music festival across the Strip.

The 64-year-old, a wealthy real-estate investor and frequent gambler, murdered 58 people and injured more than 800 others, before turning a gun on himself. Nobody knows why.

Stare of a Mass Murderer

Among the documents is the testimony of the housekeeper who cleaned Paddock’s room four days before the massacre and was one of the last people to see him alive. After their encounter, the gunman kept a “do not disturb” sign on the door and largely remained inside his suite until the shooting.

The housekeeper, whose name has been redacted from the documents, said she was unnerved by Paddock, who appeared to spend much of his time in his room — which was mostly clean, apart from the bed and bathroom — on his computer, eating room-service soup.

“He keep (sic) on staring at me,” she said.

She also said she found it strange that he had five pieces of luggage in his room. It was later ascertained that Paddock had gradually smuggled an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons into the hotel inside his bags.

Strange Behavior

Police also interviewed a Rio casino host who had known Paddock as a high-end customer for several years. The host described Paddock as “odd” and “kind of an introvert” but said he was easygoing, except for one occasion around three years ago when he had to wait 20 minutes for his luggage to arrive at the casino’s presidential suite. Paddock lost his temper and had to be calmed down by the host.

“He was just weird,” concluded the host.

Among dozens of harrowing statements from festival attendees, some of whom were injured by gunfire, was a woman who described pleading with her friend to get up as bullets flew around her, but her friend wasn’t moving and her lips were blue. A man tried to revive her through CPR. Eventually, she said, another man put a red bandana over her face.

Philip Conneller
Philip Conneller Senior Reporter

In Philip Conneller’s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation.

Philip was the original features editor for poker’s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites.

His news stories for Casino.org/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others.

Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John’s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic.

He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist.

Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC.

Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.

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    Earl Turner September 30, 2020
    I knew him from the post office and met up with him in Melbourne FL.some years later. He attended my hypnosis demonstration that I still… I knew him from the post office and met up with him in Melbourne FL.some years later. He attended my hypnosis demonstration that I still do part time. He did have strong ideas about the Jewish Bund in Shanghai that stole American jobs 25 years ago. He knew I had grown up in Mattapan where Mr Addison was from the Ward 14 Jew Ghetto .He actually despised Adelson.who owned the hotel he staged his opus from. Well I guess he showed him.
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