The brother of the man suspected of perpetrating a mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday night, the deadliest such event in U.S. history, on Monday said his family had “no idea” why the gunman opened fire on a crowd of concert-goers.
“There is no reason we can imagine why Stephen would do something like this,” the suspect’s brother, Eric Hudson Paddock, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We have no idea how this happened.”
Police on Monday identified Stephen Paddock, a 64-year-old white man from Mesquite, Nevada, as the suspect in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Stephen Paddock allegedly opened fire on a music festival on the Las Vegas strip, killing at least 50 people and injuring hundreds. According to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, the suspect killed himself before police entered his hotel room.
Eric Hudson Paddock, a 55-year-old from Orlando, Florida, was in tears, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He said it was “like an asteroid just fell on top of our family.”
“All we can do is send our condolences to the people who died. Just no reason, no warning,” he said.
Eric Hudson Paddock told NBC News that his brother was “just a guy” who was retired and visited Las Vegas to gamble and go to shows.
“We are completely at a loss,” he said. “We’re completely dumbfounded.”
