LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Latest on the mass shooting in Las Vegas (all times local):
9:40 p.m.
Las Vegas police say the vehicle that authorities announced they were seeking shortly after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history was found Tuesday in Reno.
Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said Thursday that FBI agents serving a warrant at a home in Reno owned by the shooter, Stephen Paddock, found the Hyundai Tucson but didn’t immediately share that information with Las Vegas police.
FBI officials did not immediately respond to questions about why.
The attack on Sunday killed 58 people injured nearly 500 at a country music concert on the Las Vegas Strip before Paddock killed himself.
Investigators had reported finding guns and ammunition in the home where Paddock had lived with his girlfriend, Marilou Danley.
Investigators are still trying to determine what motivated Paddock to open fire from a high-rise hotel room.
____
8 p.m.
Diana Litzenberg got her injuries from the crush of the crowd during the shooting in Las Vegas. But it is the sound of the gunfire that haunts her in the middle of the night.
“Last night, I had seven nightmares of being shot,” Litzenberg said Thursday from her hospital bed. “It’s in your mind.”
She says she keeps hearing the banging and the sirens.
The 52-year-old from Mission Viejo, California, was knocked down onto her back by a panicked concertgoer and then apparently trampled on by other people as they fled the gunfire at the country music festival. She has a spinal cord injury and what she hopes is temporary paralysis on part of her right side.
___
7 p.m.
The off-duty Las Vegas police officer who died when a gunman opened fire from a hotel on an open-air music festival was remembered as a man with a good sense of humor who loved his family.
Charleston Hartfield’s widow, Veronica, and their son and daughter, were surrounded by several hundred people during a candlelight memorial Thursday following his death on Sunday. He was 34.
Hartfield was a youth mentor, football coach, and an instructor in department’s body camera deployment program.
He was also remembered as a 16-year military veteran who served in the U.S. Army in Iraq.
His close friend, Officer Grant Riley, said he also was the author of a book titled “Memoirs of Public Servant.”
___
6:40 p.m.
Las Vegas police say they have located a car they were looking for as part of the investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says Thursday night on Twitter that the red Hyundai Tucson was found after police executed a search warrant at a home in Reno owned by the shooter, Stephen Paddock. Police did not immediately provide any other details.
The attack on Sunday killed 58 and injured nearly 500 people at a country music concert on the Las Vegas Strip.
Police had searched the Reno home on Tuesday and found guns and ammunition. Paddock had lived in the home with his girlfriend, Marilou Danley.
Investigators are still trying to determine what could have led Paddock to open fire from his high-rise hotel room before killing himself.
____
5:45 p.m.
An Illinois man has installed 58 white crosses on the Las Vegas Strip to honor the victims of Sunday’s mass shooting.
Greg Zanis drove nearly 2,000 miles from the Chicago area to put up the crosses Thursday afternoon.
The 66-year-old retired carpenter is known for installing the markers at other mass killings, including the Columbine and Sandy Hook school shootings and Orlando nightclub massacre.
Zanis says he’s made more than 20,000 crosses after making his first 20 years ago when his father-in-law was killed.
He plans to keep the tribute up for 40 days before giving the crosses to the families of the victims.
___
5:10 p.m.
An executive casino host described Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock as an analytical gambler who would try to identify video poker machines most likely to provide big payoffs.
Host John Weinreich at the Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa in Reno, Nevada, said Paddock would sit for hours, placing bets of $100 or more, rarely interacting with anyone but always conscious of his surroundings and who was winning.
Weinreich said Paddock’s girlfriend Marilou Danley once worked at the casino and initially got on Paddock’s good side by leading him to a machine where someone had lost tens of thousands of dollars.
Many gamblers falsely believe such machines are more likely to pay off.
Weinreich called Danley a “super sweet lady” and said he later learned she had taken off with Paddock.
___
4:30 p.m.
A former executive casino host at the Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa in Reno, Nevada, where Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock frequently gambled, says Paddock had a “god complex” and expected quick service no matter how busy employees were.
Host John Weinreich says Paddock was a frequent but not daily visitor to the high-limit area, where attendants stand behind a desk and a platter of food is available to gamblers.
Weinreich says Paddock liked “everybody to think that he was the guy. He didn’t boast about anything he had or anything. It was just his demeanor. It was like, ’I’m here. Don’t cross me. Don’t look at me too long.’”
Paddock was known to stare at other people. One high roller told Weinreich that she thought Paddock was creepy.
___
2:25 p.m.
Investigators are looking into whether gunman Stephen Paddock scoped out bigger music festivals in Las Vegas and Chicago and possibly Boston’s Fenway Park before setting up his casino sniper’s perch.
Authorities reconstructing Paddock’s movements say he booked rooms overlooking the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago in August and the Life Is Beautiful show near the Vegas Strip in late September.
It was not clear if he contemplated massacres at those sites.
Investigators looking into Paddock also came across mention of Fenway Park.
Boston police Lt. Detective Mike McCarthy provided no further details.
___
2:10 p.m.
A U.S. official says investigators are looking into the possibility the Las Vegas shooter planned additional attacks, including a car bombing.
The official stressed the information was preliminary and investigators haven’t uncovered any solid evidence yet.
The official, who was briefed Thursday by federal law enforcement officials, wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo says it appeared Stephen Paddock had planned to survive Sunday’s attack and had an escape plan.
Lombardo said Paddock had 1,600 rounds of ammunition in his car, along with fertilizer that can be used to make explosives and 50 pounds of Tannerite, an explosive substance.
Paddock killed himself after shooting into a concert crowd, killing 58 and wounding nearly 500.
- Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo
___
12:20 p.m.
Authorities say they are beefing up security for Sunday’s Chicago Marathon following reports the Las Vegas shooter booked a Chicago hotel room during the weekend of a major music festival held across the street.
Chicago Police Bureau of Organized Crime Chief Anthony Riccio said Thursday that there would be “significantly” more undercover officers working the marathon than in years past.
A law enforcement official says Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock booked a room at Chicago’s downtown Blackstone Hotel in August.
A spokeswoman for the Blackstone Hotel, Emmy Carragher, says a person with the name Stephen Paddock reserved a room but never checked in.
The hotel overlooks Grant Park where the Lollapalooza festival is held each year and is attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
Riccio says the undercover officers assigned to the marathon “are going to be intermingling with the crowd, they’re going to be around runners, they’re going to be at the finish line, they’re going to be at the start line.”
___
10:50 a.m.
A Chicago hotel where a law enforcement official says Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock booked a room in August during a music festival says no one by that name stayed at the hotel.
A spokeswoman for the Blackstone Hotel in a brief written statement Thursday did not address whether Paddock reserved a room but never checked in.
Paddock opened fire Sunday on a country music concert from a Las Vegas hotel room and killed 58 people.
The downtown Chicago hotel overlooks Grant Park where the Lollapalooza festival is held each year. Hundreds of thousands of people attend. The hotel spokeswoman, Emmy Carragher, said in the emailed statement that the hotel “is cooperating with the authorities.”
A law enforcement official said earlier Thursday that Paddock had booked a room at the Blackstone Hotel. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity after being briefed on the investigation.
Paddock’s booking at the hotel was first reported by TMZ.
___
10:20 a.m.
Boston’s police commissioner says he will contact federal investigators about a report that the Las Vegas shooter researched locations in Boston.
But William Evans said Thursday he could not confirm the report and had not been briefed on the matter.
A law enforcement official says Stephen Paddock booked a room at a Chicago hotel that overlooked a park where a music festival was held in August, but there’s no indication he went there.
NBC News reported that Paddock also researched Boston.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker also says he’s aware of the reports but could not discuss them because of the ongoing investigation into the mass shooting.
Baker adds that police officials based in Boston are “fully plugged in” to the investigation and are in contact with Las Vegas authorities.
___
7:53 a.m.
A full two months before he opened fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas from a 32nd-floor room of a hotel and killed 58 people, Stephen Paddock booked a room at a Chicago hotel that overlooks a park where a major music festival was held that weekend, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
The official said that law enforcement found no evidence that Paddock ever came to Chicago during the weekend of Lollapalooza - a music festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of people. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation of Paddock’s movements, spoke only on condition of anonymity after being briefed on the investigation.
The Blackstone Hotel, where Paddock made the reservations, overlooks the main stage and other stages at Grant Park where the music festival is held every year.
Paddock’s booking of the hotel room, first reported by TMZ, comes as investigators, trying to determine a motive for the Las Vegas shooting, have been trying to track Paddock’s movements in the days before he opened fire from the Mandalay Bay casino resort on Sunday night.
___
By Associated Press writer Don Babwin in Chicago
___
12:07 a.m.
Those seeking to know the motive of Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock have had little more to chase than hints and shadows.
Unlike many other mass killers, Paddock led such a private life that no one seemed to know him well, and those who did had no sense he was capable of gunning down 58 people and injuring hundreds more at a country music festival before killing himself.
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said he was surprised Paddock had provided so few clues, and that has proved challenging.
Clark County Sheriff did share on Wednesday night said Paddock had rented an apartment in another high-rise above another music festival a week earlier, though he could not say why.
And he said he felt it was unlikely Paddock could have pulled off the elaborate plan alone, though investigators have no idea who may have helped him.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.