Las Vegas

Brother of Las Vegas Shooter Speaks Out for First Time

The LAPD says the investigation into Bruce Paddock began after evidence was discovered inside a business in Sun Valley

Bruce Paddock, the brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, said he called the FBI just days after the shooting to talk to them about what happened and about his brother.

He said his brother, who is seven years older, was a father figure and a wealthy business man who may have taken one too many losses.

"I care more about the people who were hurt and know what it's like to sit on the other end of a gun," he told NBC4 for the first time while he recorded a podcast called www.HiddenTruthShow.com about the Las Vegas shooting.

Bruce Paddock is facing his own legal troubles. He is going to trial soon, accused of possessing child pornography. The charges are from a few years ago. He has denied the charges.

He said he is deeply remorseful about the 58 people killed by his older brother. Bruce says his older brother was like a father to him and his siblings. He was the disciplinarian and taught him to shoot a gun.

"He wanted to be an enrolled FBI agent," he said. Bruce said he never knew his brother stockpiled guns.

But in a video obtained by The New York Times, Stephen Paddock is seen bringing suitcase after suitcase of weapons to his hotel room before the shooting last year.

"I don't think he just all of a sudden decided he was going to bring a bunch of guns upstairs and take a chance. I think he has done all this before."

Bruce Paddock, who has a degenerative bone disease, said Stephen had surgeries early in life for his back and suggests a motive behind the shooting could have been his brother's fear of losing control, losing his money and even possibly his girlfriend.

"His dream was to have everything," he said. Stephen Paddock made millions of dollars in real estate ventures, buying one of his first buildings with financial help from their mother, who raised the four boys alone while working at an engineering company.

Their father, a former fugitive once on the FBI's most wanted list, abandoned the family. Stephen Paddock wanted nothing to do with his dad and at one point nothing to do with him either, Bruce Paddock said.

"Steve had no communication with really any of us," he said. Bruce Paddock lives with one regret. "I wish I would have been in touch with him more so I could have had control over it and stop it about as far as I can go," he said.

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