Stephen Paddock Booked Room Near Las Vegas Festival That Featured Chance The Rapper A Week Before Mass Shooting

By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 5, 2017 2:10PM

Life Is Beautiful Festival, 2014 / Getty Images / Photo: Ethan Miller

Stephen Paddock—the gunman who killed 59 people and injured more than 500 others at a country music festival on Sunday—apparently rented a room last month that overlooked another Las Vegas festival, Life Is Beautiful, which featured performers such as Lorde, Muse, Gorillaz and Chance the Rapper.

According to reports, police confirmed that Paddock rented a hotel room in the Ogden Las Vegas around the same time as the festival, which took place from Sept. 22 to 24; but authorities did not say he had planned an attack at that festival, and it was unclear why he had rented the room.

Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said, according to the AP, "Was he doing pre-surveillance? We don’t know yet. This is all pre-conjecture."

The Life Is Beautiful festival took place about a week before the attack at Mandalay Bay, the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. Chicago native Chance the Rapper was the headlining act on Friday, September 22, according to the festival website.

Life Is Beautiful CEO Justin Weniger said in a statement after the attack:

"The Life is Beautiful Festival family is devastated by the horrific events that took place on Oct. 1 in our hometown of Las Vegas. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in our community, the victims, their families and the first responders.

Life is Beautiful is founded in the beliefs of community and our collective love for each other and the arts as well as making the world a more beautiful and loving place. In the wake of this tragedy, we gather strength from these ideals and urge everyone to come together as a community, support and love one another. We will overcome the hate and the divisiveness together. We will lean on each other to move forward and to create a world in which love is the only option."

Chance tweeted, "Lord help us," early on Monday morning in the wake of the Mandalay Bay attack.

According to TMZ, Paddock also rented two hotel rooms at the Blackstone Hotel, across from Grant Park, in Chicago, with booking dates that coincided with this year's Lollapalooza festival, which is staged annually at the downtown park. Paddock never showed up for his rooms at the Blackstone, unnamed sources told TMZ.