Vegas Shooter's Heirs Will Be His Victims' Families

Families of people killed in the Las Vegas Strip massacre in October 2017 will receive shares of almost all the $1.4 million estate of the man who unleashed the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history and killed himself before police reached him, according to a probate case that ended Thursday in Nevada, per the AP. In the next several weeks, a total of almost $1.3 million will be distributed to the families of the 61 victims of the shooting, said Alice Denton, the Las Vegas attorney who handled the case with her partner, Jarien Cho, at no cost to the estate of the gunman, Stephen Paddock.

"We have done what we set out to do," Denton said of the more than five-year process to appraise, sell, and distribute proceeds from Paddock's assets, including two homes and an investment property in Nevada, a vehicle, and 49 guns. "We worked to ensure that the victims' families received the most that they could," Denton told the AP. "The guns were destroyed, and the funds will be distributed to the families of the deceased victims according to the direction of the shooter's mother. None of the money is going to anyone in the Paddock family."

Fifty-eight people died the night of the shooting, and authorities said two died months later from their wounds. More than 850 people were injured. The list of recipients of shares of Paddock's estate was sealed by the court, and Denton said she could not disclose the identity of a 61st person or how they died. The guns were purchased for $62,500 by an anonymous donor in January 2019 with the provision that they be turned over to the FBI, according to court records. Thirty-six of the weapons were destroyed, according to documents the FBI provided on Feb. 28 to the estate, and 13 were kept by the bureau for training purposes. (More Las Vegas shooting stories.)