MESQUITE, Nevada -- Police recovered more guns, ammunition and explosive materials from the home of Stephen Paddock, who is suspected of murdering dozens and wounding hundreds in a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip.
Mesquite police block entry into the neighborhood where Las Vegas Strip shooting suspect Stephen Paddock lived. (Photo by Ben Winslow, FOX 13 News)
Authorities in Las Vegas said they had found 23 guns in Paddock's Mandalay Bay hotel room. Inside his home in a quiet Mesquite retirement community, they found 19 more guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Residents in the Sun City Mesquite retirement community were stunned. Most FOX 13 spoke with said they did not know Paddock well.
"It's horrible," said Gloria Rodgers. "To know that somebody from here did it!"
Tom Jennings described him as a "normal, everyday guy."
"It makes you sick," he told FOX 13. "I feel badly for the people who lost their lives and their families."
The remains of a garage door sit on the driveway of Stephen Paddock's home in Mesquite, Nevada. Police ripped it off to enter his home while serving a search warrant. (Photo by Ben Winslow, FOX 13 News)
After the shooting, police from Las Vegas served a search warrant on the home Paddock shared with Marilou Danley. She was out of the country at the time, police said.
Mesquite Police spokesman Quinn Averett told FOX 13 officers tore the garage door off to get inside. Neighbors were briefly evacuated for the search. Throughout the day, police moved in and out of the retirement community. Police also searched a property Paddock owned near Reno.
They were searching for any clues that might help explain why Paddock killed 59 and injured more than 500.
Paddock's brother, Eric, told reporters in Orlando that his brother had retired as an accountant and moved from Florida to Nevada, where he liked to gamble.
"He bought the machine guns and did this? I mean, it was him who did this?" Eric Paddock asked reporters.
He could not fathom what his brother was accused of doing.
"I mean, he’s never even drawn his gun. I mean it makes no sense. He’s never hit anybody," Eric Paddock said.
A sign posted by a neighbor of Stephen Paddock's in Mesquite, Nev. (Photo by Ben Winslow, FOX 13 News)
Averett said Mesquite police had never encountered Paddock or Danley or had any complaints about them.
"That’s what unique about the situation is him or his roommate, we haven’t had any contacts with them at all. Be it law enforcement, traffic enforcement or arrests, nothing at all," he said.
An apparent gun enthusiast, Paddock was familiar to local gun owners. In a statement, the manager of Guns and Guitars in Mesquite said he passed all background checks and gave "no indications he was unstable or unfit at any time."
Chris Michel, the owner of Dixie Gunworx in St. George, described Paddock as an "average, everyday Joe Blow."
"Nothing that stood out, no red flags, nothing to that effect," he said. "Came in, ended up purchasing a shotgun, took him three times to purchase the shotgun. No red flags, went through the entire background check."
