Route 91 Harvest Festival Gunman’s Girlfriend Won’t Be Charged
Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of the gunman who carried out the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, will not be charged in the case. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released a new report on the tragedy on Friday (Jan. 19), detailing what they know about Stephen Paddock's actions in the months leading up to the Oct. 1 attack.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that, according to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, investigators "do not anticipate charges being brought forward” against Danley. She was out of the country at the time of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, and although she was initially described as a person of interest in the incident, Danley has maintained that she did not know what Paddock was planning.
Following the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, Danley voluntarily returned to the United States on Oct. 3. In a public statement made on Oct. 4, she explained that she thought Paddock was breaking up with her: He booked her a flight to go to the Philippines and visit her family, then wired her about $100,000 to, he said, buy a house for herself and her family.
"I was grateful, but honestly, I was worried that ... [he was] breaking up with me," Danley said at the time. "It never occurred to me, in any way whatsoever, that he was planning violence against anyone."
In his statements on Friday, Lombardo noted that, contrary to some theories, Paddock was the only shooter in the attack.
"All the evidence recovered in this case supports that theory," Lombardo says. "There was one shooter in the 1 October massacre. There was only one person responsible, and that was Stephen Paddock.”
The report assembled by Las Vegas police used interviews, forensic evidence, eyewitness accounts and a search of the gunman's hotel room and computer to piece together a timeline of Paddock's life planning and executing the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, which left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured. The Review-Journal has uploaded the entire report, for those who are interested in reading it.
Remembering the Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting Victims