One of the many painful realities to emerge from the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip is the idea that so much destruction was unleashed on the innocent by one man. And not even a particularly interesting one.
Although the investigation continues, what we’ve learned about Stephen Paddock in the days prior to his murder spree is that evil wore an ordinary, even banal face.
The Mandalay Bay casino surveillance video released last week by The New York Times, in cooperation with MGM Resorts, only serves to reinforce that awful, breathtaking picture.
“The surveillance footage is remarkable in its banality,” the voiceover offers. “It shows Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas gunman in the days before his mass shooting. He cuts a lonesome figure as he moves through the Mandalay Bay hotel, playing video poker for hours in the casino, buying snacks at a newsstand, watching a LeBron James interview in a restaurant, and at times chatting with hotel staff. But this picture of an ordinary gambler disguises a far more sinister intent.”
The video reveals clever, but hardly brilliant planning. Checking in as a rated VIP player on Sept. 25, over the course of seven days he moved at least 21 suitcases containing an arsenal of firearms and ammunition to a suite on the 32nd floor. He also booked an adjoining room. He used different bellhops to haul some of his bags, rolled others to the room himself. He was patient. He didn’t attract attention to himself.
What the video doesn’t show is a single accomplice. It reveals a balding man in his 60s making small talk with the hired help, handing out a few tips for services rendered, getting on and off elevators. He had a couple of marathon video poker sessions, but that was his style of play.
Even Paddock’s choice of vehicle, a Chrysler Pacifica mini-van, was unremarkable. If he possessed any genius, it may have been in not calling attention to himself.
MGM, meanwhile, has drawn attention for releasing the security video. Some will call it a strategic decision linked to ongoing litigation, but it’s also true the company owes us all transparency.
A good argument can be made that security at Mandalay Bay and many other casino resorts needs to evolve with the times, but we have created a nation awash in semiautomatic firearms. There’s a hell of a lot more security at a casino than there is at your child’s elementary school. Paddock is responsible for his actions, but America’s undeniable gun fetish plays a role in this nightmare.
Some irresponsible media provocateurs would have their readers believe otherwise. Internet conspiracies have mushroomed.
The available facts continue to support a less intriguing narrative about the killer. Of the contents of the video, the Times observed, “Rarely are investigators or the public able to track the preparations of a mass gunman in such molecular detail. Yet for all the material the footage offers about the who, the what, the where, the when and the how, we are no closer to the why.”
If Paddock was a member of an international terrorist organization, the facts don’t prove it. If he was a criminal mastermind with a network of accomplices, the video doesn’t show it.
He was methodical. He was single-minded. But he didn’t telegraph his intentions. He was a nihilistic man with a van-load of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. The result was 58 murders and more than 700 injured.
The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history remains a massacre without an apparent motive.
Contact John L. Smith at jlnevadasmith@gmail.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith.
