Las Vegas Shooter Stephen Paddock Was 'Fascinated' by Oklahoma City Bombing

• Stephen Paddock committed the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas.
• Documents revealed by the FBI suggest the shooter was fascinated by other creators of mass destruction and terror such as the Oklahoma City bombers and Adolf Hitler.
• He had been threatening violent actions a month before the shooting.

Mystery still surrounds the motive of the 64-year-old killer behind the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, but new documents revealed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suggest the shooter had a fascination with other evil wrongdoers.

On October 1, 2017, Paddock smuggled nearly two dozen guns into his hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. He then opened fire at concertgoers attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, killing 58 people and wounding at least 500 after firing nearly 1,000 bullets from his 32nd-floor room.

Two women died years later as a result of the injuries they suffered from the shooting. The victims killed that night included an off-duty Las Vegas police officer, a California kindergarten teacher and parents of young children.

Paddock died by suicide before being apprehended—an effort that took police more than an hour after the attack began around 10:08 p.m. Paddock allegedly didn't leave behind a suicide note or manifesto explaining his motive, but newly released—albeit heavily redacted—documents revealed by the FBI provide insight on what and who may have motivated the killer to commit the horrific massacre.

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Documents revealed that Paddock had a fascination with other creators of mass destruction and terror, such as the two Oklahoma City bombers. The documents also revealed that Paddock "thought Adolf Hitler was a great man."

The Oklahoma City bombing, which has been deemed the deadliest domestic terror attack in U.S. history, bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995. Two white supremacists who were known to be anti-government extremists perpetrated the bombing, which killed 168 people and injured more than 680. The bombing also severely injured the building, which was later demolished.

A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which investigated the shooting, told Newsweek that a motive still hasn't been determined.

"Speculating on a motive causes more harm to the hundreds of people who were victims that night," the spokesperson said. "The FBI documents that were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act request are from the original investigation. We do not believe they will shed new light in the case."

The FBI revealed information acquired from someone who knew Paddock, although the person's connection is unclear due to the heavily redacted documents. According to the documents, the person communicated with Paddock roughly a month before the shooting, and the person reported that Paddock was angry and upset and had been threatening violent actions, such as threatening to kill someone, although the subject of Paddock's anger also was redacted.

Paddock was a retired accountant, and more than half of the weapons recovered in his hotel room were equipped with bump stocks, which can convert a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon. The massacre reinstated cries for stricter gun laws across the nation, although many gun stores selling to Paddock claimed he had bought the weapons legally.

Newsweek previously reported that Paddock, a resident of Las Vegas, checked into the hotel as a guest under a different name three days before the attack. Shortly after the shooting, police announced that they believed Paddock operated as a "lone wolf" and wasn't linked to a militant group and wasn't assisted by anyone else.

Update 3/31/23, 9:52 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from a spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.