Utah man ‘had no idea’ he bought gun once owned by Las Vegas shooter

The final batch of Las Vegas police records from the Route 91 Harvest festival attack included some unexpected news for St. George, Utah, resident Ron Woodbury.

Until the documents were released last week and a reporter called him about one of them, Woodbury didn’t know that the handgun he bought two years ago once belonged to a man who would become a mass murderer.

“I had no idea,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday. “It’s certainly something I’ll have to kick around a bit.”

According to the police records released last week, Mandalay Bay gunman Stephen Paddock sold three pistols and two rifles on consignment at Rowdy’s Range and Shooters Supply in St. George four months before the Oct. 1, 2017, attack.

Woodbury purchased one of the pistols — a semi-automatic Sig Sauer P229 — for about $580 in May 2017.

He said he doesn’t usually buy used guns, but he couldn’t afford a new P229, which the manufacturer describes on its website as a weapon with “combat reliability, trusted by federal law enforcement professionals for decades.”

“It’s a fantastic gun. I looked for one for a year and a half,” Woodbury said, adding sarcastically, “What luck I got that one.”

The final batch of police records includes reports from investigators who were sent out in the days following the mass shooting to document where Paddock acquired his arsenal.

In the last 10 months of his life, the 64-year-old Mesquite man bought at least 27 firearms — 19 of them semi-automatic rifles — from eight different stores in Nevada and Utah. Fifteen of those weapons were found in the 32nd-floor suite at Mandalay Bay after Paddock murdered 58 people then shot himself in the head as police closed in.

Many of the gun store clerks and managers interviewed by police said they didn’t remember Paddock. Those who did described him as a normal customer — polite, friendly and somewhat quiet, with questions and comments that rarely strayed beyond firearms.

Sportsman’s Warehouse sold the most weapons to Paddock. Between Jan. 25, 2017, and Sept. 1, 2017, he purchased eight semi-automatic rifles and two shotguns from the national chain’s location in St. George. Seven of those weapons ended up in the Mandalay Bay suite, as did the three semi-automatic rifles Paddock bought from Sportsman’s Warehouse in Las Vegas on March 2, 2017.

Guns and Guitars Inc. in Mesquite sold a pistol and four rifles to the man over a 10-month period.

Store manager Christopher Sullivan told police he also cleaned several high-end, AR-15-style rifles for Paddock, who reportedly told him that he fired about 1,000 rounds through each weapon before he brought them in to be serviced starting in August 2017.

All of the guns were acquired legally. The stores that sold them cooperated with authorities.

Woodbury, who grew up in Las Vegas, said he isn’t sure if he will keep the pistol now that he knows who used to own it.

There are all kinds of “freaky collectors” out there who would pay top dollar for a gun with such a history, he said, “but I’m not sure I’d want to transact with someone like that.”

Woodbury declined to say how many guns he owns. He mainly described himself as a target shooter.

“I like to put holes in paper, preferably in the middle,” he said.

Now he has an interesting story to tell the next time he goes to the range.

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.