Ex-convict’s letters to shooter predict Las Vegas massacre

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Letters from the gunman who carried out the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history in October 2017 in Las Vegas appear to have been written by a Texas ex-convict who predicted the massacre, documents obtained Friday show. .

“My friend, it looks like you are going to kill someone or some people,” a handwritten letter Stephen Paddock Dated June 1, 2017 and signed Jim Nixon. “Dear Steve,” he called, “Please don’t do any shooting like idiots.

Another letter, dated May 27, 2017, among 10 unredacted documents released by Las Vegas police, said: “I am concerned about the way you speak and I believe you will do something very bad.” In the year Letters written in 2013 and 2014 described the men as doing business together.

“Please don’t go out to shoot or hurt someone you’ve done nothing to,” the May 27 letter pleaded. “Steve, please don’t do what I think you’re going to do.”

Paddock fired from the window of a high-rise casino hotel during an outdoor concert crowd, killing 58 and injuring more than 850. Paddock killed himself before police arrived. The police did not receive the letters. Two more people later died of their wounds.

The new owners of a vacant office building in Mesquite, Texas were found by mailing the letters to the Las Vegas police. Police said the letters were sent to the FBI, whose agents are investigating.

The reference to the letters is one of hundreds of pages made public by the FBI. last week In response to a records request from The Wall Street Journal. While there is no word on their credibility, the FBI report indicates that Paddock sold the property in Mesquite around 2012.

“Paddock used the proceeds from that sale to purchase dozens of weapons that were ultimately used in the shooting,” said a redacted section of the FBI report, which described other records as “negative of a relationship” between the secretary and Paddock.

A brief cover letter dated November 30, 2017, with sender and recipient exchanged, said: “We went to the office and found … a folder of what appeared to be copies of letters.” “We wish you well in your investigation.”

In a statement Friday, the Las Vegas office declined to comment and pointed to undisclosed findings from the Las Vegas police and FBI investigation into Paddock’s attack.

Police said. In the year In August 2018, Paddock, 64, gambled away more than $1.5 million, played large amounts of video poker, amassed a cache of guns and became increasingly unstable — including distancing himself from his girlfriend and family. Paddock acted alone, investigators said, and carefully planned the attack.

He has organized meetings in at least four cities Possible targetsInvestigators said at the time and several weeks before the plot, they booked episodes of the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.

At the time, an FBI agent in Las Vegas said, “He did the most damage and it was a defamation.” In January 2019.

“The FBI does not comment on individual interviews conducted during an investigation and we do not comment on (Freedom of Information) filings,” the bureau said Friday. “There is no new information in this case that the FBI does not already know or that the FBI has not shared with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. We stand by the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit’s summary of key findings.”

Las Vegas police declined to comment, and AP’s efforts to reach Jim Nixon on Friday were unsuccessful.

The Review-Journal reported that Nixon, a disabled Vietnam War veteran who served time in prison for tax evasion, is now 75 years old. He told the newspaper that he never contacted authorities about his concerns about Paddock.

“He did what he did and I’m very disappointed that I couldn’t stop him,” Nixon said. I didn’t know he would do what he does.

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Associated Press writers Rio Yamat in Las Vegas and Jacques Billaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.