The girlfriend of the Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock told investigators she had no idea what he was planning, and said her “heart breaks” over the mass killing.
Paddock, a 64-year-old retiree and gambler, killed 58 people and injured more than 500 when he fired from a 32nd-floor hotel room at a country music festival on Sunday.
He killed himself before police reached his room in the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino from which he had been shooting.
It is the worst mass shooting in modern American history.
His girlfriend Marilou Danley, who was interviewed by the FBI on Wednesday, issued a statement calling Paddock a “kind, caring, quiet man” she “loved and hoped for a quiet future with”.
It comes as police announce there is evidence Paddock intended to survive his killing spree.
Paddock had compiled a huge arsenal of weapons and is believed to have used a device that allowed his semi-automatic weapon to fire at a faster rate.
Ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in homemade explosives, was also later found in his car. Police have yet to identify a motive.
In her statement, Danley said: “I am a mother and a grandmother and my heart breaks for all who have lost loved ones.
“I knew Stephen Paddock as a kind, caring, quiet man. I loved him and hoped for a quiet future with him.
“He never said anything to me or took any action that I was aware of that I understood in any way to be a warning that something like this was going to happen.”
After the shooting, Danley returned to America from the Philippines, where she been visiting family during a trip paid for by Paddock.
Her statement follows claims Paddock was verbally abusive to her in public, which it did not refer to.
Danley addressed claims Paddock had given her money so she would be out of the country during the shooting.
She said he told her two weeks ago he had a “cheap ticket” for her to travel to the Philippines, which she gratefully accepted but felt the “unexpected trip home and the money was a way of breaking up”.
“It never occurred to me in any way whatsoever that he was planning violence against anyone,” she said.
“Like all Filipinos abroad, I was excited to go home and see family and friends. While there, he wired me money, which he said was for me to buy a house for me and my family,” she said.
She asked for privacy but added: “Anything I can do to help ease suffering and help in any way I will do.”
Clark County sheriff Joseph Lombardo has revealed Paddock rented an apartment overlooking another music festival the previous weekend and speculated he had help.
“Do you think this was all accomplished on his own? You’ve got to make the assumption he had to have some help at some point,” Lombardo said.
The sheriff also said there was evidence Paddock planned to survive his killing spree and escape but he did not specify what the evidence was.
Danley has been described by police as a “person of interest,” although she has not been charged with any crimes.
Paddock’s brother Eric Paddock also expressed shock at what happened, telling The New York Times he “could not be more dumb-founded”.