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One of them kept the television 24 hours a day overnight trying to gather all the details that could help to understand what happened. Another analysis of the attacker's family history. Others have discussed the case informally between colleagues and officially at professional conferences.
A year after Stephen Paddock killed 58 Las Vegas fans, criminal psychologists and threat assessment experts still do not understand why a wealthy 64-year-old has committed the deadliest shots in modern American history .
Experts routinely find answers to the reasons why mass shooters commit their crimes, whether it is anger against their colleagues or classmates in the face of slights, terrorism or mental illness. Several hypotheses about the possible psychopathy and desperation of the Las Vegas shooter have begun to emerge, but they are tentative and based on limited evidence – a disturbing result for people looking for clues that may help prevent such a deadly incident. l & # 39; future.
"People are baffled by the case – there is some confusion, and there is a horror," said J. Reid Meloy, forensic psychologist and professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego. and conferences. "The most disturbing cases are those without response."
A ten-month investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police found no evidence of Paddock's motivations after interviews with relatives, his girlfriend, his ex-wife, a doctor and casinos, as well as research into computers, phones and Internet history. He left no manifest or note of suicide, was not affiliated with a terrorist group and had no mental health diagnosis that could explain his actions.
Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, chief of the Vegas police, said during the release of the final report in August that Paddock's gambling losses might have been a factor; his bank accounts increased from $ 2.1 million to $ 530,000 in the two years preceding the attack. But the sheriff said the investigators were not able to "definitely answer the question."
"We would like to know more about this," said John Nicoletti, a psychologist and associate of the threat assessment firm Nicoletti-Flater Associates. "With all the missing data, what everyone is saying is just speculation"
Criminal investigators at the Federal Bureau of Investigation are working on their own report on Paddock, which is expected to be released soon. The highest FBI official in Las Vegas said during a radio interview this summer that the report might not provide "a definite reason".
"It's a confusing case and a difficult case," said Mary Ellen O'Toole, a retired FBI profiler. "In many ways, it's an outlier."
From the beginning, Paddock has challenged a lot of the expectations of professionals in this field. According to a recent FBI study of 63 of these assaulters, mass shooters are usually younger men who look after real or perceived grievances. Four out of five had preoccupying behavior prior to an attack, including informing others on social media or in person about their violent intentions.
Paddock was more clandestine. CCTV footage shows him playing, eating and bringing more than 20 bags to his suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in the days leading up to the attack. The baggage contained an arsenal of semi-automatic rifles, and he turned his room into a sniper's nest to rain down bullets at a helpless crowd at the Road 91 Harvest Country Music Festival on October 1, 2017.
Heather Melton is sitting next to her husband's grave, Sonny, on the grounds of her home in Big Sandy, Tennessee on Tuesday. He died while he was protecting Heather during the mass shooting at Route 91 Harvest Festival.
Photo:
Mark Humphrey / Associated Press
In the months following the tragedy, when investigators were struggling to find the animosity that could explain the attack, Russell Palarea, president of the Threat Operational Review Cabinet, began formulating his own theory on the Paddock pattern.
Mr. Palarea said that during mass shootings, when there was no grievance, the motive was often infamous. When Las Vegas police revealed that Paddock had also discovered other rooms located above other open-air concert halls, he confirmed his suspicions that Paddock wanted to kill as many people as possible.
"Some people kill for notoriety and infamy, and that's what he did," said Dr. Palarea.
Dr. Meloy, the forensic psychologist, began developing his own hypothesis about the shooter after reading a 1960 psychological examination of his father, Benjamin Hoskins Paddock, a bank robber on the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives list. 1969 when he escaped from prison. A psychiatrist determined after arrest that the father was a sociopath.
"I started thinking about psychopathy," said Dr. Meloy, "when I was struck by the father's story and by the fact that his biology was rooted in a father who had been diagnosed with a psychopath.
Dr. Meloy stated that Paddock's brother's speculation in interviews with investigators that "he did everything in the world and was bored with everything" supported his hypothesis.
The bloody and grandiose assault on a crowd of people that Paddock had never met also had psychopathic features, not mental depression, said Dr. O'Toole, the retired FBI profiler. "It was a total lack of empathy for trauma and damage to strangers," she said.
This hypothesis has holes. Paddock had no history of violence, impulsiveness or lies and he helped his loved ones. He called his mother before the attack to make sure she was ready for Hurricane Irma. He shared his investments and wealth with his family and his girlfriend, Marilou Danley. He was also prescribed medication to calm anxiety, not a trait often associated with those who have no consciousness.
"To be able to say that Stephen Paddock was a psychopath, you had to do a posthumous assessment with case material, interviews, you would have to go back over years of behavior," said Dr. O. Toole.
Even among the investigating forces close to the investigation, no speculative consensus has been reached.
"My opinion is that he was pissed off getting kicked ass or that he wanted to follow his father's shoes," said an investigator.
Write to Zusha Elinson at [email protected]
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