Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock left behind a note outlining calculations he made to maximize the number of casualties caused by the deadly mass shooting he carried out on the Las Vegas strip on Sept. 30.
Authorities believe Paddock used the handwritten note to calculate the distance and elevation of his vantage point on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, roughly 400 yards from the crowd of over 20,000 revelers.
“I could see on [the note] he had written the distance, the elevation he was on, the drop of what his bullet was gonna be for the crowd,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department office Dave Newton told CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
“So he had that written down and figured out so he would know where to shoot to hit his targets from there,” he said.
Newton discovered the note on a bedside table near one of the windows Paddock shot from. Police found 47 weapons in Paddock’s suite, including multiple AR-15 style rifles outfitted with bump stocks designed to increase the weapon’s rate of fire.
Paddock, 64, fatally shot himself after firing on the crowd of concertgoers, killing 58 and wounding more than 500.
Newton, who was present when police breached Paddock’s door using explosives, described the scene upon entering the room as “eerie.”
“Very eerie. Yeah, the dust from the explosive breach. And then you have the flashing lights,” Newton told “60 Minutes.” “And that looked straight, like, out of a movie, you know?”
The family of John Phippen, 56, who was killed in the shooting, petitioned the court Friday to freeze Paddock’s assets to prevent the gunman’s longtime girlfriend, Marilou Danley, or any of his siblings from transferring money Paddock left behind.
The petition asks that the money be controlled by the county administrator so that the Phippens and others who “suffered loss, distress and injuries” can file suit against the estate for restitution.
Paddock transferred roughly $100,000 to Danley via an account in the Philippines the week before the shooting.
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