Stephen Paddock had been losing money since 2015 and that may have triggered him, Clark County Sherriff Joe Lombardo told KLAS-TV in an exclusive interview.
Paddock is accused of opening fire on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas Oct. 1 from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. The 58 deaths have been called the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Authorities have since searched for a motive that led to the shooting. Paddock died at the scene after taking his own life.
Lombardo said in his KLAS-TV interview that authorities have learned since that the alleged shooter had "some success" in real estate and then became a prolific gambler.
"Over time, he's gone up and down in his wealth associated with gambling and real estate, and everything that he chose to do," Lombardo told KLAS-TV. "Since 2015, September of 2015, he lost a significant amount of wealth and I think that might have (had) a determining factor in what he determined to do."
Lombardo went on to say that Paddock was "status drive" and his star dimming in the gambling world could have also been a factor.
"He had a narcissist personality," Lombardo told KLAS-TV. "We determined also he was going though … probably bouts of depression, but he was status driven. … This individual was status-driven based on how he liked to be recognized in the casino environment and how he liked to be recognized by his friends and family. Obviously, that was starting to decline in a short period of time, and that may have a determining effect on why he decided to do what he did."
Paddock’s brain tissue was sent to Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology for a neuropathological examination, Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"I actually hope we find something in the pathology of his brain that will help us understand this," Lombardo said, per the Review-Journal.
The Los Angeles Times reported Lombardo as saying Paddock's girlfriend, Marilou Danley, a former casino concierge who lived with him in Mesquite, Nevada, continued to be interviewed and was still considered a "person of interest."
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