Bruce Paddock, 58, brother of Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas gunman, was arrested on Wednesday after being found to be in possession of 600 child pornography images. Paddock has been under investigation by police since 2014 and his arrest was not in any way related to his brother’s shooting massacre in Las Vegas which saw 58 dead and almost 500 injured.

Bruce Paddock arrested for possession of child pornography

According to court documents filed on Tuesday, Paddock was arrested at a nursing home in North Hollywood and is facing 20 criminal charges relating to sexual exploitation of children and possession of child pornography.

The Los Angeles Times reports that 10 or more of the 600 child pornography images featured children under the age of 12.

First investigations by LAPD began in 2014

According to a statement by the Los Angeles Police, they first started investigating Paddock back in 2014, when he was homeless and was found to be squatting in the premises of a Sun Valley, Los Angeles business. After Paddock was evicted, police found the evidence of child pornography. However, they lost track of Paddock until recently, when he was found in the North Hollywood nursing home, leading to his Wednesday arrest. According to spokesman Josh Rubenstein, police had released an image of Paddock in an attempt to track down other possible victims.

Television footage reportedly showed Paddock being transported to an LAPD van in a wheelchair.

Rubenstein stressed that Paddock’s arrest does not relate to his brother’s October 1 shooting massacre in Las Vegas. According to Los Angeles County criminal records, Paddock has had several run-ins with the police, including assault and battery charges in 1989 and a variety of property crimes and driving without a license around 1994 and 1995.

He was more recently charged with petty theft and burglary, as well as arson and vandalism.

Suspect was receiving psychiatric treatment

The New York Daily News reports that Bruce Paddock was a patient at the Four Seasons Healthcare and Wellness Center in Los Angeles. However, the manager declined to give any comments on Paddock due to patient confidentiality.

One patient outside the clinic, 64-year-old Cleveland Simpson, did speak to the Daily News, saying he had shared a room with Paddock at one stage. He said he was shocked to hear the news, but said Paddock was a “psych” patient, who had often complained about the amount of medications he was given, but according to Simpson, Paddock needed the medicine.
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