Search Warrants Name Second Person of Interest in Las Vegas Shooting Investigation
Newly unsealed documents have revealed the name of an additional person of interest in the ongoing investigation into the mass shooting that took place in Las Vegas in October of 2017.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Douglas Haig is named in one of the documents among the nearly 300 pages of search warrant records a judge unsealed on Tuesday (Jan. 30). It's the first time his name has come up in public; previously, only Marilou Danley, the girlfriend of shooter Stephen Paddock, had been identified as a person of interest in the investigation.
Paddock killed 58 people and injured more than 700 others when he opened fire on the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on Oct. 1 during Jason Aldean's headlining set on the third and final night. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound before responders gained access to his room at the Mandalay Bay hotel adjacent to the concert. Authorities have determined no motive, but the investigation has pieced together a chilling timeline in which Paddock carefully planned the crime down to the last details for months to maximize its impact.
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“Until the investigation can rule otherwise, Marilou Danley and Douglas Haig have become persons of interest who may have conspired with Stephen Paddock to commit Murder with a Deadly Weapon,” the newly unsealed document from the Metropolitan Police Department reads, according to the report.
Speaking to reporters in front of his home in Mesa, Ariz., on Tuesday night, Haig said he had sold Paddock some ammunition and confirmed that he has been contacted by investigators. He declined to elaborate, and called the police to request that reporters leave his property. A sign on his front door indicated he intends to hold a press conference on Friday (Feb. 2). In an appearance on CBS This Morning on Wednesday, he said he sold Paddock 720 rounds of ammunition from his home business weeks before the mass shooting.
"I couldn't detect anything wrong with this guy," Haig said in the interview. "He told me exactly what he wanted. I handed him a box with the ammunition in it, and he paid me and he left."
Haig works as a senior engineer for Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix, and he also owns a company called Specialized Military Ammunition. That company's website says it is a source for "premium, MILSPEC, tracer and incendiary ammunition in popular military calibers," and a note on the website says the business is closed indefinitely.
Haig was a registered vendor at a gun show in Phoenix in September, according to the Review-Journal. Paddock traveled between Las Vegas, Mesquite, Reno and Arizona in the months prior to his shooting spree.
Authorities have stated that Danley will likely not face charges, and though Haig's role in the investigation is not yet clear, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo has said repeatedly that Paddock was the sole shooter and responsible for his own actions. Authorities have said that criminal charges are still possible as a result of the investigation, but have provided no further information.
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