As investigators look at numerous different angles to find the motive behind the Las Vegas massacre, new details about the gunman have emerged. Stephen Craig Paddock gunned down 59 people – including himself – and injured 500 others on October 1 from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.
It has now been reported that Paddock had attended a court deposition in 2013, where he had said that he was "the biggest video poker player in the world," according to CNN. The deposition has now been handed over to the FBI. The 64-year-old was at the time reportedly called in for questioning as part of a civil lawsuit against the Cosmopolitan Hotel. He had earlier slipped and fallen on a walkway.
That is when Paddock had revealed about his love for poker. "Nobody played as much and as long as I did," he said, and added that he would play the game for "14 hours a day, 365 days a year" on an average in the year 2006. "I'll gamble all night. I sleep during the day."
The gunman had even revealed that he rarely drank while playing as he wanted to concentrate on the game. "At the stakes I play, you want to have all your wits about you, or as much wit as I have," he noted.
The gunman reportedly also took anxiety drug valium and kept a "valium-prescribing doctor on retainer." While he stated that he did not have mental health issues he said he was prescribed the drug "for anxiousness" by a physician to whom he had "good access."
Paddock also seemed very proud of his gambling abilities and said that he won "from $100 to $1,350" every time he played and hence, that wasn't big money for him.
CNN, which had accessed the deposition, said that Paddock at times appears quite arrogant and sarcastic.
While authorities have searched his three-bedroom house in Mesquite, Nevada, twice and have also gone through his hotel room, nothing much has been found yet, apart from "an armory" and numerous tools and calculations through which the gunman wanted to maximise the number of victims.
Not much is known about Paddock except that he was seen with a mystery woman before the massacre. It is now being said that this woman, who was seen with Paddock a few days before the attack, was a prostitute and investigators are now interviewing numerous other call-girls in the area for clues, reported the Associated Press. The officials are also baffled by the fact that Paddock has left behind no information on the reason behind the shooting, whereas such killers usually leave behind notes or at least post cryptic messages on social media.
Meanwhile, it has now also come to light that apart from frequenting casinos, Paddock was also a regular in cruises and took about 20 trips to various foreign ports. A lot of these ports are said to have been in Europe and the Middle East – mostly Spain, Italy, Greece, and the UAE, reported CNN. This link too is now being investigated.
