The girlfriend of the gunman who officials say executed the greatest mass shooting in modern day history is speaking out.
Stephan Paddock, 64, killed 59 people and injured more than 500 late Sunday evening when he fired shots into a country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
“I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man. I loved him and hoped for a quiet future together with him,” Marilou Danley, 62, said in a statement read by her lawyer, according to PEOPLE.
Danley went on to say that Paddock “never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something horrible like this was going to happen.”
She also confirmed reports that Paddock sent her on a trip to her home country while he executed the massacre.
“A little more than two weeks ago, Stephen told me he found a cheap ticket for me to the Philippines and that he wanted me to take a trip home to see my family,” she said. “Like all Filipinos abroad, I was excited to go home and see family and friends. While there he wired me money, which he said was for me to buy a house for me and my family. I was grateful but honestly, I was worried that first the unexpected trip home and then the money was a way of breaking up with me.”
Paddock is believed to have wired Danley $100,000 and she returned to Los Angeles late Tuesday. FBI agents interviewed her the next day.
“It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone,” she said. “I have not made a statement until now because I have been cooperating with the authorities and I voluntarily flew back to America because I know the FBI and Las Vegas Police Department wanted to talk to me and I wanted to talk to them. I will cooperate fully with their investigation. Anything I can do to help those suffering and help in any way, I will do. Please respect my privacy and my family’s privacy.”
Investigators say Paddock purchased a room on the 32nd floor of the well-known resort Thursday. He reportedly shot out the windows of the room and started shooting random patrons of a festival that was taking place. Officials say they recovered more than two dozen firearms from the room, including a rifle that had been altered to shoot faster rounds.
Paddock died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound moments before encountering police.
Investigators are still in search of a motive.
