How the Las Vegas Gunman Planned a Massacre, in 7 Days of Video | NYT - Visual Investigations

The surveillance images stand out for their banality. It shows Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas

gunman

, in the

days

before his mass shooting. He cuts a lonely figure as he moves around the Mandalay Bay hotel: he plays

video

poker for hours in the casino; buy snacks at a kiosk; watching a LeBron James interview at a restaurant; and sometimes, chatting with the hotel staff. But this image of an ordinary player disguises a much more sinister intention. Through these never-before-seen images, we will show how Paddock methodically

planned

his attack and how, for seven

days

, hotel staff unknowingly helped him move bag after bag of weapons into his room.

The

video

s, obtained exclusively by The New York Times from MGM Resorts, begin Monday, September 25. In the V.I.P. At the counter, he checks into a suite on the 32nd floor and reserves an adjoining room, which he will check into four days later. He doesn't bring suitcases right away. Instead, he spends two hours at the hotel, going to his room and eating at a sushi restaurant downstairs. Shortly before 5 p.m., he drives his Chrysler Pacifica minivan to the valet area, where a bellman loads the luggage cart with five suitcases. Paddock asks to keep his luggage, so the bellhop takes him through the service elevators to his room, something hotel management says is not unusual.

Paddock spends the next four hours in his room and, at 9:40 that night, he leaves the hotel with two suitcases. He drives an hour to Mesquite, where he lived. Cell phone records show he spends the night here and spends most of Tuesday. Around 8 p.m., Paddock returns to Las Vegas, but stops at Ogden, a condominium complex downtown. This is interesting for many reasons. Paddock also rented rooms here throughout the week. He checked in the previous Friday, when a music event called the Life Is Beautiful festival was taking place in the surrounding streets. Internet records recovered by police show that he looked up the poster for that festival and its expected attendance.

This was similar to his investigation into Mandalay and the Route 91 Harvest Festival, which he would later attack. So the Ogden and Life is Beautiful festival could have been used for planning, or even been a target. Later Tuesday night, Paddock returns to the Mandalay and another bellboy helps him move seven more suitcases to his suite. He again uses the service elevator. He clues the bellman in, who had no way of knowing that these cases were full of weapons and ammunition. He plays for eight hours until morning. Paddock was a regular customer at the Mandalay and was known to several casino hosts.

The videos show his interactions as completely normal and in no way alarming. Remember, in two days, Paddock brought 12 cases upstairs. He spends most of Wednesday in his room and that night he repeats a similar pattern. He leaves the Mandalay, again with two suitcases. He stops in Ogden and drives to his house in Mesquite. On Thursday, he buys a .308 bolt-action rifle at a gun store and visits a nearby shooting range before returning to Mandalay. That night, he again uses the valet service and a bellman to carry a white container and three suitcases to his room. His arsenal of weapons is growing.

Again, he plays all night. It's now Friday and at 8 p.m. m. The Route 91 Harvest Festival will open at the fairgrounds across from Mandalay. Paddock stays in his room until 3 p.m. and he uses his laptop while he cleans his suite. He checks into the next room, 134, using the name of his girlfriend, Marilou Danley. He also tells the cleaning staff to leave the food service cart. Two days later, Paddock would use this and another service car to create a surveillance ring during his attack. During the night, he makes a brief trip to Mesquite. He returned to Mandalay at 6 a.m. with two more suitcases.

Shortly after noon on Saturday, he posts do not disturb signs on the doors of both rooms. He refuses household chores. He takes an elevator to the valet area and sits, waiting for his car. He carries two more bags to his room. He plays some more and that night he makes one last trip to Mesquite, returning to Mandalay at 3 a.m. on Sunday morning. He plays all night in the high limit slot machine area and returns to his room at 7:37am. m. It's 12:16 p.m. m. when we see Paddock return to the parking lot. The guests exiting the elevator have no idea that within 10 hours, this ordinary figure would commit the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

He returns from his car, carrying two suitcases and a smaller bag inside. Since Monday he has brought at least 21 suitcases, two smaller bags, a laptop bag and a container to his room. This is the last time we see Paddock, arriving at the 32nd floor. Throughout the day, he opens, closes, and locks both rooms repeatedly. At nine thirty-six minutes, he locks room 135 for the last time. Four minutes later, Jason Aldean, who headlines the Route 91 festival, begins his act. Paddock then locks room 134. At 10:05, he begins his shootout. In less than 10 minutes, he would kill 58 people and wound more than 700, before taking his own life.

He had accumulated 23 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Nearly six months after the attack, Paddock's motive remains unknown.