Attorney: Box with Mesa ammo dealer's name found in Las Vegas shooter's room

When police went through a hotel suite used by Stephen Paddock, the man who killed 58 people in a mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival, they found a box that had information about a Mesa man, according to that man's lawyer.

Authorities would later learn the Mesa man was an ammunition dealer who had sold more than 700 rounds of tracer ammunition to Paddock, said Marc Victor, the lawyer for Douglas Haig.

Haig, 55, an aerospace engineer for Honeywell who ran a small ammunition business from his home in Mesa, didn't think he sold his rounds to a man who would later carry out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history before killing himself, Victor said.

He never thought his name would be wrapped up in a case that has caused grief to hundreds of people and traumatized many others.

READ MORE: Mesa man says he sold ammunition to Las Vegas mass shooter

"I think what's important to know here is that he is aware there are bad people out there and he was on the lookout for that stuff," Victor said on Wednesday. "In this case, there wasn't anything strange. There wasn't anything strange about this sell."

Haig told The Arizona Republic on Tuesday in a brief interview at his home that his transaction with Paddock still haunts him.

"It really starts to get me upset when I heard what he did," Haig said. "I think about it every day. Every day."

Haig meets Paddock

Victor told The Republic on Wednesday in a phone interview that Haig met Paddock twice last year shortly before the shooting on Oct. 1.

The first time was at a gun show in the Phoenix area, Victor said. The lawyer couldn't recall the specific place, but he said there was one gun show in Mesa where Paddock and Haig may have met.

At the time, Haig didn't sell him anything but later met Paddock at Haig's Mesa home, the lawyer said. 

Haig sold him more than 700 rounds of tracer ammunition and put them in a box.

That box, the lawyer said, had Haig's name and address.

When law enforcement went through Paddock's 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, from where the lone gunman shot into the crowd of fans at a country-music festival, they found the box.

"Within hours, they contacted my client," Victor said.

The FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents interviewed Haig, Victor said.

The FBI has not commented on the case. An ATF spokesman said they have helped the FBI in its investigation of the shooting but didn't confirm if agents spoke to Haig.

Victor said he doesn't expect his client to be charged with any crime. He added that it's been several months since federal agents have contacted his client.

Records show that Haig ran a website called Specialized Military Ammunition.

The company's Web page says its products are handmade but that the business is closed indefinitely.

"Check back to see if/when we are up and running again," the website says.

The company sold tracer and incendiary ammunition in military calibers such as .223, .308, 9mm and .45 auto.

It says the company started in 1991 as a small business to support the U.S. Special Operations Command, a Department of Defense command made up of various branches of the military to oversee special missions, an indication it had done business with the U.S. military.

"In the mid 2000s contracts began to shrink dramatically due to funding decreases, and private civilian sales began to dominate the majority of our business," the website says.

Document shows name

Haig's name accidentally became public when a judge's court staff in Las Vegas forgot to redact his name in court documents that were released Tuesday. The Las Vegas Review-Journal was the only publication that received a copy of a document that had Haig's name unredacted. 

“Until the investigation can rule otherwise, Marilou Danley and Douglas Haig have become persons of interest who may have conspired with Stephen Paddock to commit Murder with a Deadly Weapon,” reported the Review-Journal, citing the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department document prepared in October.

The Review-Journal and other publications had sued the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department to unseal search warrants in the shooting investigation. 

In the months since the shooting, investigators have said they have not found a motive for why Paddock fired at the people.

READ MORE: Las Vegas shooter's motive remains elusive

In an interview, Haig said that among the things that stuck with him was the reason Paddock, 64, gave for wanting to purchase the tracer ammunition.

"He said he was going to go put on a light show," Haig told a television network. "And I can't remember whether he said for, or with, his friends, but that's what he did say."

"I'm still racking my brain for what did I miss. Why didn't I pick this up?" he told CBS. 

Tracer ammunition purpose

It's not clear what Paddock may have meant by the comment or whether he used the tracer ammunition he bought from Haig in the Oct. 1 mass shooting. 

Tracer ammunition, which is used in the military, leaves a visible trail that lights up the sky when the rounds are fired rapidly. 

The ammunition is legal in most of the country, including in Arizona. But California and Alaska have some restrictions on tracer ammunition, depending on the caliber and type of firearm it is used in, according to a report by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a Connecticut-based group whose mission is to promote and protect recreational shooting.

The ammunition is made of flammable materials that are ignited when they are fired, commonly from a rifle, and light up, creating a trail of light until it hits a target. The purpose is to help the shooter see if the bullet hits its intended target.

Phillip Gallegos, a former bureau chief and instructor with the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy, said when someone fires tracer ammunition into the air at night, "it kind of looks like a firework show."

"It's neat to see it, but there's no civilian application for it," said Gallegos, who added that the last time he shot such ammunition was during his time in the military.

"It's used and designed for the military," he said. 

Gallegos and other police or firearm trainers said if Paddock had used the tracer ammunition, it would have been clearly seen in videos that were recorded by concertgoers.

"They're like small fire torches," said Jeff Vick, another former New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy trainer. He said he has fired the ammunition for recreational purposes.

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