The girlfriend of Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas shooter who took the lives of 59 people and injured more than 500, said it never occurred to her that “he was planning violence against anyone.”
“I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man,” Marilou Danley, Paddock’s girlfriend, said in a statement read by her attorney Wednesday. “He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.”
Danley was visiting her family in the Philippines after Paddock bought her a ticket to visit her family there. When she arrived, Paddock sent her money that was intended to help her purchase a home for her and her family. Danley said she thought the gesture was a signal that Paddock was breaking up with her.
“I was grateful, but honestly, I was worried, that first, the unexpected trip home, and then the money, was a way of breaking up with me,” she said. “It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone.”
Danley arrived in Los Angeles late Tuesday night and was interviewed with FBI agents on Wednesday. Danley, who is a “person of interest,” agreed to cooperate with the authorities and is considered a key part of the criminal investigation because officials have yet to understand Paddock’s motive.
“I am devastated by the deaths and injuries that have occurred and my prayers go out to the victims and their families and all those who have been hurt by these awful events,” Danley said.
Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel Sunday night upon concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. The shooting left at least 59 dead and more than 500 wounded.
Paddock was found dead in his hotel room by law enforcement after the shooting.
