Vegas shooter booked room in Chicago; Reports say he also researched sites in Boston

LAS VEGAS — A full two months before he opened fire on a country music concert in Las Vegas from a 32nd-floor room of a hotel and killed 58 people, Stephen Paddock booked a room at a Chicago hotel that overlooks a park where a major music festival was held that weekend, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

WFXT said there were Media reports say that Paddock researched sites in Boston, but there was no evidence he traveled to the city.

The official said that law enforcement found no evidence that Paddock ever came to Chicago during the weekend of Lollapalooza – a music festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of people. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation of Paddock’s movements, spoke only on condition of anonymity after being briefed on the investigation.

The Blackstone Hotel, where Paddock made the reservations, overlooks the main stage and other stages at Grant Park where the music festival is held every year.

Paddock’s booking of the hotel room, first reported by TMZ, comes as investigators, trying to determine a motive for the Las Vegas shooting, have been trying to track Paddock’s movements in the days before he opened fire from the Mandalay Bay casino resort on Sunday night.