Trump surprised Las Vegas shooting motive not uncovered by FBI

By Michael Balsamo and Ken Ritter The Associated Press

5 years ago

President Donald Trump visits with first responders at Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017. On Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019, Trump said he was “disappointed” the FBI couldn’t figure out the motive behind the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @csstevensphoto

The FBI investigates atop the Route 91 Harvest main stage at the Las Vegas Village festival grounds on Oct. 11, 2017. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @vegasphotograph

Broken windows at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on Oct. 2, 2017, after a shooting left 58 concertgoers dead. Richard Brian Las Vegas Review-Journal @VegasPhotograph

Police officers stand at the scene of a mass shooting near Mandalay Bay on the Las Vegas Strip on Oct. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/John Locher)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is “disappointed” the FBI couldn’t figure out what specifically motivated a gunman to carry out the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.

Trump’s comments Wednesday to The Daily Caller came a day after the FBI released its final report on the 2017 Las Vegas shooting that left 58 people dead.

“It was a horrible event,” Trump told The Daily Caller during a nearly 40-minute interview on Thursday. “He was a very, very sick person, obviously. It was very unusual in that there didn’t seem to be your standard set of reasons as to why this would happen. I’m a little surprised that the report wasn’t much longer but at the same time I can understand it. It was just a — just a terrible thing. They were unable to find a real reason other than, obviously, he was sick and they didn’t know it.”

After 16 months, the FBI on Tuesday released its report saying it couldn’t find any “single or clear motivating factor” to explain why gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd at the Route 91 Harvest festival. They suspect he might have been seeking infamy.

Trump said he followed the developments through the case.

“I was watching it like everybody else,” Trump said. “I thought it was horrible. I went to the hospital, I saw many of the victims and right after the event it was horrible. It was inconceivable. But he was a very sick person and nobody would’ve known it. Nobody had any idea.”

Nearly 900 people were injured in the shooting.

Trump said FBI agents worked very hard on the case but “just were unable to find anything. I think they worked very hard. I will tell you they worked very hard on that case. … I’ve looked at some of the things also and it was a very unusual case of a very sick person who just, people never saw that coming.”

He said he was surprised the agency released a report less than three pages long.