Bruce Paddock, brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, has reportedly been arrested for possession of child pornography.
TMZ is reporting that Paddock was taken into custody in North Hollywood, CA early this morning.
Authorities say the arrest is the result of a months-long investigation that began long before Stephen Paddock carried out the deadliest mass shooting in US history on October 1.
Sources say police had been unsuccessfully attempting to locate Bruce for months.
After the shooting, police reportedly received a tip that the 58-year-old was residing in an assisted living facility in California.
Paddock was apparently awaiting surgery for spinal stenosis at the time of his arrest.
According to a felony complaint, in 2014 Paddock was in possession of 600 sexually explicit photos of minors.
Paddock reportedly faces 19 counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography.
Strangely, Bruce spoke to the press seemingly without hesitation following news that his brother had murdered 58 concertgoers and injured 546 others.
“I don’t know how he could stoop to this low point, hurting someone else. It wasn’t suicide by cop since he killed himself,” he said at the time.
“He killed a bunch of people and then killed himself so he didn’t have to face whatever it was.”
It was Bruce who revealed that that he and Stephen’s father had been a bank robber who was hunted by the FBI.
Shortly after the shooting, Bruce stated that he was “annoyed” that his brother’s crimes had brought new attention to some of his past misdeeds, including a vandalism charge for which he was sentenced to community service that he never carried out.
“I’m not proud of it,” he said. “But I never went to prison.”
Bruce also told the media that in the months leading up to the shooting, he had attempted to reconcile with his estranged brothers and mother, but was unable to do so.
I want to see if we could patch up what we destroyed so many years ago,” he said.
He added that he had only succeeded in locating his mother, “and she’s yelling at me all the time not to talk to anyone.”
We’ll have further updates on this developing story as more information becomes available.
