Man who sold ammunition to Vegas shooter is charged as he reveals his encounter with deadly gunman Stephen Paddock

Douglas Haig, 55, has acknowledged that he sold tracer bullets to Stephen Paddock before his rampage
AP
Eleanor Rose3 February 2018

The man who acknowledged selling hundreds of rounds of tracer bullets to the gunman responsible for the Las Vegas massacre has been charged.

Douglas Haig, 55, stands accused on a count of conspiracy to make and sell armour-piercing ammunition without a license.

Haig, of the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, Arizona, became the first person arrested and charged in connection with the October 1 massacre, which ended when the perpetrator, Stephen Paddock, killed himself.

But he told a news conference at the office of his attorney that none of the surplus military ammunition he sold Paddock in September was ever fired during the killing spree, which ranks as the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Nearly 500 people were injured.

Killer: Stephen Paddock opened fire on a country music festival concert

Haig said he had no idea of any criminal intent by Paddock. The ammunition dealer said Paddock told him, when asked, that he planned to use the tracer bullets to "put on a light show either with, or for, his friends" in the desert.

Paddock pummelled a crowd of outdoor concert-goers with rapid-fire gunshots from his high-rise suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel before police stormed his room to find the 64-year-old retiree dead.

No motive for the massacre has ever been established.

'Well groomed and polite': Las Vegas gunman Stephen Paddock
AP

Haig said he was certain the gunman never used any of the 720 rounds of magnesium-packed tracer bullets Paddock had purchased from him.

"You would have seen red streaks coming from the window. And there weren't red steaks coming from the window," he said.

His lawyer, Marc Victor, suggested the casualty toll would have been lower had the tracer rounds been used, because victims would have seen the trajectory of gunfire in the dark and been able to take cover more easily.

"It's probably a bad thing that the ammunition Doug sold was not used," Mr Victor said.

Haig also said there was nothing suspicious about Paddock's behaviour when he visited Haig's home to make the purchase.

"He was very well dressed, very well groomed, very polite, very respectful - told me what he wanted, I gathered it up, put it in a box, told him what he owed me. He paid me, put it in his car and drove away," Haig recounted.

Mr Victor called it "a routine transaction to purchase a routine type of ammunition that is available in many different retail outlets throughout the sate of Arizona." Victor said the two men had no further contact.

Victor said Haig got into the ammunition re-sale business in 1991 as a hobby, and has always been a "law-abiding citizen."

Haig was charged with a single count of conspiracy to manufacture and sell armour-piercing ammunition, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the statement.

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