LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Families of the victims of the 1 October mass shooting are expected to soon receive payouts from the shooter's estate after a judge's ruling on Thursday.
Attorney Alice Dention said lawyers for Stephen Paddock's estate were able to identify and take possession of $1.3 million in assets. Denton expects each family to receive just under $20,000.
Attorneys representing the estate said they were able to persuade Paddock's mother to assign her share of his inheritance to the victims' families. Two residential properties and a plot of land were sold, and lawyers were able to persuade creditors to remove their claims so more money could go toward the victims' families.
The attorneys are also waiving their fees.
Paddock opened fire on concertgoers from a Mandalay Bay suite on Oct. 1, 2017. Fifty-eight people died that night and in the days immediately following the shooting.
To date, it is considered the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
As part of settling the estate, Paddock's guns were destroyed, lawyers said during Thursday's hearing. An anonymous donor paid $63,000 for the value of the 49 guns used in the shooting "to assure that not one more person will die as a result of those guns," Denton said.
Sixty-one families will receive payments from the estate, Denton confirmed to Channel 13.
Paddock, who killed himself at Mandalay Bay, is not included in that total.
The cumulative death toll now includes a previously unreported victim who died from their injuries in the years since the shooting, Denton said. She tells Channel 13 she will honor the wishes of that person's family in not publicly naming them or revealing information about their death.
13 INVESTIGATES: How did 1 October shooting deaths increase officially to 60 victims?
The shooting death toll has been disputed over time. In 2020, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police raised the number of officially recognized victims to 60, adding two people who died as a result of injuries they endured that night.
