A freshly concluded FBI investigation failed to determine a motive in the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead at a country music fair.
America’s deadliest mass shooting committed by a lone gunman was perpetrated by Stephen Paddock on Oct. 1, 2017, when he fired more than 1,000 shots out of his 32nd floor hotel room and into the crowd below attending the Route 91 Harvest fest.
Why he did it may never be known.
Federal agents released a three-page report Tuesday that offered no insight as to what might have sparked Paddock’s rampage. Their report concluded that the killer sought only to kill people and be known for doing so.
“It was all about doing the maximum amount of damage and him obtaining some form of infamy,” the agent in charge of the investigation told the Associated Press. “This report comes as close to understanding the ‘why’ as we’re ever going to get.”
The FBI’s findings, or lack thereof, concluded a thorough 16-month investigation into the massacre. The shooting also left more than 850 people wounded.
Paddock, who fatally shot himself on the night of the killing, was a 64-year-old gambler who lived in the Nevada suburbs. His actions prompted a national discussion about bump stocks, which the New York State legislature voted to ban Tuesday. Bump stocks allow gun users to fire repeat shots without letting go of the trigger.
“It was all about doing the maximum amount of damage and him obtaining some form of infamy,” the agent in charge of the investigation told the Associated Press. “This report comes as close to understanding the ‘why’ as we’re ever going to get.”
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