Free Republic

Two years have now passed since the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history – yet the biggest question about it remains unanswered. The American public is still in the dark as to why Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers outside the Mandalay Bay resort on Oct. 1, 2017, killing 58 and wounding hundreds more. The FBI’s agents and behavior specialists spent more than a year investigating the attack. Officials released clips of nearly 1,200 officer body camera videos, many hours of 911 audio recordings and dozens of handwritten and transcribed witness accounts. But 730 days later,...

REVEALED: Iraqi refugee who planned to carry out terror attacks with bombs he built in Las Vegas was caught in elaborate FBI sting teaching agents to make IEDs with skills he learned in Iraq Ahmad Suhad Ahmad made two bombs in a condo in Las Vegas which were to be used in a terror attack in Mexico Thwarted by the FBI because the bureau had set up an elaborate sting operation He's accused of teaching ‘the making and use of a... weapon of mass destruction’, to another person between March and April, 2017 He showed the agents how to connect...

The man who unlawfully possessed the deadly toxin, ricin, and two unregistered firearm silencers in his Las Vegas hotel room in April was sentenced today to three years in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $7,500 fine. U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones imposed the sentence against Roger Von Bergendorff, 57, who pleaded guilty in August to one count of possession of a biological toxin and one count of possession of unregistered firearms. Bergendorff also agreed to forfeit a pistol and two unregistered silencers, said U.S. Attorney Greg Brower of Nevada.

Despite Mandalay Bay shooter Stephen Paddock’s history of high-stakes gambling, he had no known gambling debts, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Tuesday. And, contrary to published reports, Paddock’s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, told investigators in Los Angeles she had no concerns about his mental health. In an extensive interview Tuesday with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Lombardo clarified those details and provided new information about the Oct. 1 shooting that killed 58 concertgoers and left nearly 500 injured. The sheriff said investigators have made contact with Paddock’s entire “family tree,” including the shooter’s two ex-wives. Their conversations have shed new light...

As virtually everyone has noted from the abundant video footage of the incident, it certainly sounds as if the shooter used either fully-automatic weapons or semi-automatic weapons modified (through, for example, a bump fire stock) to closely simulate automatic fire. Moreover, the police are reporting that he had “more than 10 rifles.” He apparently rented his corner room for days and may have even set up cameras to detect when police were approaching. That’s all strange enough, but it’s even more unusual when you consider that his own family apparently didn’t know that he maintained a stockpile of guns.[snip]Put all...

The celebrating began before the coroner could collect the bodies of Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo, the Las Vegas patrol officers ambushed and executed while eating at a pizzeria last month. “The good news is, there are two less police in the world,” read an entry on the Facebook page for CopBlock.org. The post was visible for less than a day, but it attracted at least 6,300 likes and comments by the time the page’s administrators removed it. Jerad Miller — who along with his wife, Amanda, gunned down the Vegas police officers before dying during a shootout with police...

LAS VEGAS -- An unemployed graphic designer who told investigators that he found making ricin an "exotic idea" pleaded guilty Monday to possessing the deadly toxin in a hotel room here. Roger Bergendorff, 57, also pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge. (A second weapons charge was dropped.) He could face up to 20 years in prison at his Nov. 3 sentencing, though prosecutors are recommending that he serve a little more than three years. Bergendorff reportedly fantasized about harming people with the poison -- he had sketched an "injection delivery device" disguised as a pen -- but never carried...