Hans Rustad Politiet i Las Vegas tør å si litt mer om mysteriet Stephen Paddock: Han må ha hatt hjelp, sa sheriff Joseph Lombardo torsdag.
Paddock hadde opprinnelig planlagt å flykte, fortalte Lombardo. Dette er interessant info. Enslige ulver som blir massedrapsmenn, pleier å ende sine liv når de forstår at det er game over. Men Paddock gjorde ikke det. Han så seg om etter en utvei. Først da han forsto at det var for sent, rettet han våpenet mot seg selv.
Samtidig etterlot han seg en lapp. Hva som sto på denne, ville ikke sheriffen si. Men det var ikke en selvmordsbeskjed, sa Lombardo. Igjen en indikasjon på at Paddock ikke var på et desperado-oppdrag.
He intended to escape after the attack, but he instead turned the gun on himself as authorities closed in on his room on the 32nd-floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.«He was doing everything possible to see how he could escape at this point,» Lombardo said.
Before killing himself, Paddock, 64, had set up cameras inside and outside his hotel suite, and in the peep hole.Police also found 50 pounds of explosives and 1,600 rounds of ammunition in his car in the Mandalay Bay hotel parking lot, according to Lombardo. There was also a note in his hotel room, but it was not a suicide note, he said, without providing details on what it said. CNN.com
Det mest overraskende er antydninger om at flere var involvert.
En sheriff som forestår etterforskning i den verste massakre i fredstid, vil neppe slenge ut at drapsmannen må ha hatt hjelp hvis denne formodningen ikke underbygges av spor:
Lombardo painted a picture of a man who may have had some help in planning the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.More than 100 investigators have spent the past three days combing through details of his life, looking for answers.«What we know is Paddock is a man who spent decades acquiring guns and ammo, and living a secret life,» Lombardo said. «Anything that would indicate this individual trigger point, which would cause him to inflict this harm, we’re not there yet.»
Investigators said something may have happened to Paddock between October last year and September this year that compelled him to purchase more weapons and ultimately lead to the massacre. Paddock bought 33 firearms, mostly rifles, during that 11-month period, authorities said.«Do you think this was all accomplished on his own? You’ve got to make the assumption he had to have some help at some point,» Lombardo said.
I was referring to studies that showed pathological gamblers «conceal» and «bluff» in the rest of their lives, too – with their near and dear ones, for example, as this man appears to have done with his girlfriend. That’s to say, his known life – his routine, his habits, his associations – was a kind of bluff, as the Sheriff’s remarks about his «secret life» suggested. Whether or not he sat at gaming tables regularly, a thought occurred to me during the Sheriff’s press conference that this man’s «weirdly blank» public profile (as I put it) is closer to something like a contract killer than a mentally disturbed guy who suddenly snaps. I’m not saying this particular accountant is literally the eponymous accountant of Ben Affleck’s recent movie, but there is a level of efficiency and organization here that separates Sunday night’s carnage from almost all other single-shooter attacks.
So as the days go by this seems less and less like a lone wacko who suddenly cracks up.
Trump-følgere
CNNs Hvite Hus-korrespoondent Jeff Zeleny ble bedt om å kommentere den første uttalelsen presidenten kom med om Las Vegas. Han trakk da inn at uttalelsen nok gikk hjem, siden publikummerne på festivalen nok var Trump-tilhengere.
Zeleny said he found the speech to be “pitch perfect” but then asked people to “keep in mind” that many country music fans are Trump supporters.
“Something else, I think, to keep in mind–a lot of these country music supporters are likely Trump supporters,” Zeleny said. “This is something, of course, hitting the tapestry of all Americans and there are going to be victims from across the country here.”
Zeleny provided no context or explanation for the assertion that many of the victims may have been Trump supporters, so it’s not clear why he thought it was relevant to Trump’s remarks.
Men hva skulle være grunnen eller sammenhengen i en slik stund, hva ville Zeleny med en slik kommentar? Den fremstår som usmakelig, hvis det ikke er fordi CNN mener at publikum har tilhørt en politisk fløy som CNN har lite til overs for.
Hvis det skulle være en politisk vinkel på skytingen, kan det slå voldsomt tilbake på CNN.
