Las Vegas shooting: Inside Stephen Paddock's community
Stephen Paddock was known in the Mesquite community where he lived as a wealthy man and a gambler who mostly kept a low profile.
Tuesday 3 October 2017 11:49, UK
Ninety miles northeast of where Stephen Paddock carried out his attack on concertgoers, we found the gun shop where he bought at least some his collection of firearms.
Guns and Guitars sits in a small car park near a Thai restaurant and dollar store.
It's understood this is where he bought a handgun and two rifles.
The general manager said he had passed all background checks necessary, the sales were legal and they were co-operating with federal and local law enforcement.
One customer who pulled up, disappointed that the shop had shut early, told me the weapons used in the , where 59 people were killed and hundreds injured, were far more powerful than anything available here.
A few minutes' drive away, in a tranquil, manicured looking neighbourhood, is Paddock's home.
When we arrived at around 5pm local time, police had re-opened the cordon, but the house was boarded up. A neighbour told me they'd send in robots to search for devices.
As we talked, residents passed by on golf buggies. You have to be 55-years-old to live in this community and many people I spoke to said they moved here to play golf, soak up the sun and enjoy a little flutter.
Perhaps Paddock, 64, had done the same. Some said he was known as a wealthy man and a gambler but the vast majority focused on how he kept a very low profile.
That seemed unusual in a place where everyone seemed to be walking their dogs and having a chat on the street corner.
One neighbour said Paddock had tried to erect a larger fence for privacy in his garden, but apart from that never seemed to raise or cause any issues.
"It's a terrifying thought," one man told me as he looked on outside Paddock's home. "He had so many dangerous things in there."
One woman at a local bar painted a very different picture of the killer, telling me he'd go to a karaoke night every Tuesday nearby.
There is a rush to judgement in every mass shooting. With no clear motive or stated ideology, there are no obvious answers.
But understanding his motivation and mindset is still vitally important. I fear it could be overlooked in the absence of something overt.