Stephen Paddock
Stephen Paddock, 64, the gunman who attacked the Route 91 Harvest music festival in a mass shooting in Las Vegas, is seen in an undated social media photo obtained by Reuters on October 3, 2017. Social media/Handout via Reuters

The Las Vegas gunman was a retired accountant, a multi-millionaire property investor and a high-stakes gambler. Sixty-four-year-old Stephen Paddock carried out the Las Vegas massacre that killed 59 people and injured 500.

“He was a wealthy guy and he liked to play video poker and he liked to go on cruises," Eric Paddock, his brother, said in Orlando, Florida.

The gunman bought a home in a rural Nevada retirement community two years ago. It was an hour's drive from the Las Vegas casinos. He reportedly moved back to Nevada because he did not like Central Florida's humidity.

Paddock lived in Mesquite in Texas before moving to Mesquite, Nevada. He worked as the manager of Central Park, an apartment complex, there. His neighbour told FloridaToday that he was “a normal man.” He was also an accountant and had real estate investments, The Washington Post reports. Paddock was associated with several properties and had a Texas driver’s license which is now expired, according to a Mesquite police department spokesman.

Records list Paddock as single, but public and police records indicated that he lived with a woman in the Nevada retirement community. She had no association with the shooting, authorities said.

Paddock's brother told CBS News that he was aware the shooter kept some handguns in a safe. He also recalled that his brother was a peaceful man. Las Vegas police confirmed that Paddock had no criminal record beyond a traffic violation.

He is also not connected with international militant groups, according to the FBI. His relatives said Paddock had not displayed strong ideological or political beliefs during their interactions. “When you find out about him, like I said, he’s a guy who lived in a house in Mesquite and drove down and gambled in Las Vegas,” his brother added.

The last time the brothers had a communication was in early September. They were exchanging text messages regarding power outages after Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida. Their mother still lives there.

Paddock made gambling transactions worth tens of thousands of dollars in recent weeks, NBC News reports. It was unclear whether those were wins or losses.

On the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel, Paddock was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot. This is according to Sheriff Joseph Lombardo of Clark County.

NBC News/YouTube

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