Los Angeles

Las Vegas Shooter Was a Cal State Northridge Graduate

Stephen Paddock went to high school in Sun Valley, then earned a degree in business at CSUN

Cal State Northridge officials confirmed Tuesday that Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, attended the university in the 1970s.

According to CSUN, Paddock "attended the university, completing a degree in Business Administration in 1977."

After learning of the connection, "CSUN's chief of police was contacted, and university officials shared this information with investigators in Las Vegas.

"While no words can truly express the loss and sadness the nation feels today, the CSUN community offers its profound sympathies to those affected by the heinous violence that occurred in Las Vegas," according to the university.

Paddock attended Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, graduating in 1971, and previously attended Richard Byrd Middle School.

Former Los Angeles City Councilman and state Sen. Richard Alarcon told the Los Angeles Daily News he knew Paddock while growing up and recognized his face when his picture was released after Sunday's shooting.

"I just recognized his face, his hair color, his eyes," Alarcon said.

"He always had big eyes when he was a kid. The face was recognizable.

"He was an average kid, very pleasant," he told the paper. "He wasn't overbearing. ... He didn't have the most outspoken personality. We're talking about when we were 8 to 12 years old. He was just an average, American kid."

The NBC4 I-Team has learned Paddock owned property in Southern California, including a Hawthorne building he sold in 2004 for more than double what he bought it for — $3.2 million.

On Sunday, 59 people were killed and hundreds more were wounded when hundreds of rounds of gunfire rained down on them from Paddock's room on the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel. Paddock was later found dead in his room with 23 guns. The shooting is the deadliest in modern U.S. history.

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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