The gunman behind the deadly shooting in Las Vegas over the weekend was the son of a bank robber wanted by the FBI in the 1960s and ’70s.
Stephen Paddock, who police say killed at least 58 people on Sunday night and injured more than 500 others, was the son of Arizona bank robber Patrick Benjamin Paddock, Stephen’s brother told NBC News.
According to news reports, Benjamin Paddock was arrested in 1961 for robbing a Valley National Bank in Phoenix in 1960. Also known by the names “Chromedome,” “Old Baldy,” and “Big Daddy,” Paddock landed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list after escaping a 20-year prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institution at La Tuna, Texas.
“Since he has utilized firearms in previous crimes, has employed violence in attempting to evade arrest and has been diagnosed as being psychopathic, Paddock should be considered extremely dangerous,” an FBI agent in charge of the Phoenix office told Tucson’s Daily Citizen newspaper, according to an archived version of the paper accessed by New York magazine.
Paddock was arrested in 1978 in Oregon, where he was running a bingo parlor under the name Bruce Werner Ericksen. He was believed to have robbed other banks but was never charged.
On Sunday night, Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel at the crowd of the Route 91 Harvest country music festival. At least 58 people have died, with more than 500 people injured. The suspect is dead from what police believe to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.