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Vegas shooting: Paddock was a 'quiet, caring man', says girlfriend

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Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend says she had no clue of his deadly plan

LAS VEGAS: The girlfriend of the Las Vegas shooter said on Wednesday she had no idea he was planning the attack, describing her boyfriend as a "quiet, caring man".

In her first public comments over the shooting at a country music concert that left 58 dead and nearly 500 wounded, Ms Marilou Danley said she had hoped for a quiet future with Stephen Paddock, who killed himself before police could get to him.

The 62-year-old returned to the US from her native Philippines late on Tuesday and was met by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

In a statement read by her attorney Matthew Lombard, she said she had no hint of what was to come, adding: "I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man.

"I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together with him.

"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."

Ms Danley added that two weeks ago, Paddock told her he had found a cheap plane ticket for her to visit family in the Philippines and had wired her money to purchase a house while she was there.

She said she became concerned at that point, thinking he wanted to break up with her.

"It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone," said Ms Danley, an Australian citizen who moved to the US 20 years ago to work on the casino strip.

It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone. Ms Marilou Danley, girlfriend of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock

US authorities are at a loss as to how Paddock, a 64-year-old gambler and retired accountant, hauled a vast arsenal of weapons to his hotel room and launched his assault.

Investigators said the shooting appeared to be extensively planned: Paddock set up one camera in the peephole of his hotel room door and two in the hallway.

UNFOLDED

The attack unfolded in just 10 minutes from the first shot to the last, but Paddock was not confirmed dead for more than an hour after that, Las Vegas sheriff Joseph Lombardo told journalists on Wednesday.

Mr Lombardo said the scale of the preparations for the attack - including the weapons, ammunition and electronics he had stockpiled - raised questions about Paddock potentially having had an accomplice.

He updated the number of people wounded in the attack, putting the latest figure at 489.

Authorities said Paddock, who had no criminal record, smashed windows in his hotel room shortly after 10pm local time on Sunday and rained fire on a crowd of some 22,000 attending the concert below.

When a Swat team stormed the room where Paddock had been staying since Sept 28, they found he had killed himself.

Authorities have seized 47 firearms from three locations.

So far, investigators have found nothing to explain Paddock's actions, only describing him as a "psychopath."

The Las Vegas attack is the deadliest shooting in recent US history, surpassing the toll of 49 dead in an attack on a Florida nightclub in June last year. - AFP

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