Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo floated the possibility that Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock could have been “radicalized.”
“I want to understand the motivation that you described, okay, to prevent any future incidents, and, you know, did this person get radicalized unbeknownst to us? And we want to identify that source,” he told reporters during a press conference.
While the Islamic State initially claimed responsibility for the attack, federal law enforcement quickly put that theory to rest, saying they have not determined any “connection to any international terror group” at this point in the investigation.
Paddock, a 64-year-old white male, was a multimillionaire real estate investor who had a penchant for high stakes gambling. He was known to have spent anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 per day at Las Vegas casinos.
The week before the attack he also wired $100,000 to an account in the Philippines, where his girlfriend 62-year-old Marilou Danley was at the time of the mass shooting, which was the deadliest in U.S. history.
Danley, an Australian national of Filipino descent, returned to the United States Tuesday evening.
Paddock encouraged Danley to leave the country before the attack, her sisters said, CNN reports.
"I know that she don't know anything as well like us. She was sent away. She was away so that she will be not there to interfere with what he's planning," one of Danley's sisters told 7 News, a CNN affiliate in Australia.
"In that sense, I thank him for sparing my sister's life," she said, adding that Danley was "really in love with Steve."
Her other sister said Danley is the only one who can help police determine Paddock’s motive.
"No one can put the puzzles together, no one, except Marilou, because Steve is not here to talk anymore. Only Marilou can maybe help," the sister said.
"If Marilou was there, this maybe as well didn't happen because she won't let it happen."