Face of Nation : Two years after a madman set up a sniper’s nest inside a Las Vegas highrise hotel room, lawyers representing some of the hundreds wounded and family members of the 58 killed announced Thursday they’ve reached a deal with MGM Resorts that could pay them up to $800 million — but while the money may be settled, the motive for the massacre remains unknown.
The announcement comes as events this week marked the two-year anniversary of the attack, in which gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers outside the Mandalay Bay resort on Oct. 1, 2017. Las Vegas law firm Eglet Adams says the amount of the settlement depends on the number of plaintiffs who choose to take part.
MGM, which owns the venue where the attack was carried out, has been defending itself from hundreds of liability lawsuits. The law firm says an independent party will be appointed by a court to evaluate claims and dole out money from the settlement fund, and that the entire process should be completed by late 2020.
“The settlement fund will be funded by MGM Resorts’ insurers with a minimum of $735 million,” the Eglet Adams law firm says. “Depending on claimant participation, MGM Resorts will add additional amounts, up to $800 million.” The motive for the shooting — which was the deadliest in modern U.S. history — is still unknown.
Aaron Rouse, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas office, said in January that Paddock acted alone when he planned and carried out the attack. The 64-year-old fatally shot himself as police arrived into his hotel suite. Las Vegas police also closed their investigation in August 2018 without establishing a motive.
Paddock, who was a retired postal service worker, accountant and real estate investor, owned rental properties and homes in Reno and in a retirement community more than hour’s drive from Las Vegas. He also held a pilot’s license and liked to gamble tens of thousands of dollars at a time.
Police characterized him as a loner who had no religious or political affiliations, despite reports he had ranted about the Federal Emergency Management Agency “camps” set up after Hurricane Katrina and deadly standoffs between law enforcement officers and militia groups at Waco, Texas, in 1993 and Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992.
Authorities said he began to stockpile weapons about a year before the attack and spent $1.5 million in the two years before Oct. 1, 2017. He also started to distance himself from his girlfriend and family.
Paddock sent his girlfriend, Marilou Danley, to visit her family in the Philippines two weeks before the attack. He also wired her $150,000 while she was there. She returned to the U.S. after the shooting and told authorities he had complained that he was sick and doctors told him he was suffering from an incurable “chemical imbalance.”
