





Las Vegas Strip mass murderer Stephen Paddock used his Mandalay Bay hotel room to spray massive aviation fuel tanks with bullets Sunday night, a knowledgeable source told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The bullets left holes, but did not penetrate the two circular white tanks, sparing the nearby Route 91 Harvest country music festival from a potentially massive explosion, the source said Wednesday.
The tanks are roughly 1,100 feet from the concert site, where Paddock killed 58 people and wounded almost 500.
Within the past couple of days, construction crews repaired and painted the holes, and FBI agents inspected the tanks and took measurements of the line of fire from Mandalay Bay, the source said.
Paddock, a 64-year-old Mesquite resident, had broken two windows in his 32nd-floor suite — one in line with the concert site and the other with a direct view of the fuel tanks, the source said. The bases of private aircraft operators are close to the tanks.
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Breault declined to comment. “We can’t comment on an ongoing investigation,” she said late Wednesday.
Paddock’s shooting rampage was the deadliest in modern U.S. history. He killed himself as Las Vegas police closed in on his room.
Paddock was a retired accountant who had no criminal background and a passion for video poker. He lived in Mesquite with his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, and regularly came to the Las Vegas Strip to gamble.
This is a breaking story. Check back here for updates.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.