The sunrise ceremony kicked off a day of memorials, prayer services, blood drives and dedications to commemorate the lives lost in the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting. The giant casino marquees were set to go dark in unison Monday night with the names of the victims to be read shortly after. (Courtesy of YouTube)
By Tim Stelloh, the Associated Press, and NBC News
Among them was Mynda Smith, whose sister, 46-year-old Neysa Davis Tonks, was shot dead at last year’s Route 91 Harvest Festival.
(The sister of one of the Las Vegas shooting victims spoke at a remembrance ceremony on Monday for the tragedy, talking about how she’s using her sister’s memory to live her life. Courtesy of Global News and YouTube. Posted on Oct 1, 2018.)
Recalling how her sister liked to dance when no one was looking — and her “energetic, adventurous” spirit — Smith offered a blunt but hopeful view of the grief likely felt by many of those in attendance.
“None of us will ever be the same,” Smith said.
“We have all changed. We have all been broken. But we can find a way to pick up those pieces and glue it all back together.”
“Yes, the cracks will be seen. But it can be whole again and we will be stronger.”
(Heather and Sonny Melton were enjoying a carefree night of country on the Vegas strip until a 64-year-old gunman opened fire on the crowd. Courtesy of Today and YouTube. Posted on Oct 1, 2018.)
The ceremony was one of many events planned in Las Vegas and beyond to mark a shooting that targeted a massive country music festival and became the deadliest in modern American history.
Country music stations around the country planned a minute of silence. NHL’s Golden Knights planned to visit a blood drive and the Mandalay Bay, the high-rise casino where the gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor.
And during an event at the White House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump said his administration was “knocking out” bump-stock rifles — the aftermarket, rapid fire device used in Las Vegas.
“I’ve told the NRA,” he said. “Bump stocks are gone.”
(2 survivors of that mass shooting are trading pain for joy as they wed in Las Vegas. Courtesy of ABC News and YouTube. Posted on Oct 1, 2018.)
At the amphitheater in Las Vegas, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval offered a somber message to the first responders, relatives of victims and elected officials.
“Today, we remember the unforgettable,” he said. “We comfort the inconsolable.”
“Today, we are reminded of the pain that never really goes away,” he added.
Christie Kraemer, a Las Vegas real estate agent who wasn’t at the concert but knew people who were, said “I never want Oct. 1 to happen again.”
“But I love Oct. 2 because of the way everyone came together.”
Shooting survivors Chris and Larisa Rapanick of Chesapeake, Virginia, made the trip to Las Vegas for weekend events including a 5K run, a country music club show and a reunion of survivors on Saturday.
At the sunrise service, they stood with their two adult daughters.
(On October 1st, we remember the 58 people killed and more than 800 injured in the Las Vegas shooting in 2017. Courtesy of CBSN and YouTube. Posted on Oct 1, 2018.)
“We weren’t going to let this ruin a place we like to come to,” Chris Rapanick said. “I’m glad to be standing here.”
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo recalled the chaos and confusion of the shooting, and the prayers to “heal broken hearts,” blood banks filled with donors and “acts of kindness that comforted the suffering” that followed.
“When the sun rose the next morning, grief turned to anger, anger turned to resolve and resolve turned to action,” Lombardo said.
Many who were cheering Jason Aldean’s headline set on at the Harvest Festival late Oct. 1, 2017, said later they initially thought the rapid crack-crack-crack they heard was fireworks — until people fell dead, wounded, bleeding.
(Country star Jason Aldean spoke with CBSN’s Vladimir Duthiers about returning to Las Vegas for the first time since the Route 91 Harvest music festival for the Academy of Country Music Awards. Courtesy of Entertainment Tonight and YouTube. Posted on Apr 15, 2017.)
The Rapanicks heard bullets hitting a canvas awning near them as they fled and saw a shot hit a plastic cup that flipped in the air.
From across neon-lit Las Vegas Boulevard, a gambler-turned-gunman with what police later called a meticulous plan but an unknown reason fired assault-style rifles for 11 minutes from 32nd-floor windows of the Mandalay Bay hotel into the concert crowd below. Police said he then put a pistol in his mouth and killed himself.
Medical examiners later determined that all 58 deaths were from gunshots. Another 413 people were wounded, and police said at least 456 were injured fleeing the carnage.
Lombardo declared the police investigation over in August, issuing a report that said hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of investigative work could not provide answers to what made Stephen Craig Paddock unleash his hail of gunfire.
(Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo discusses the final report on the 2017 mass shooting. Courtesy of PBS NewsHour and YouTube. Posted on Aug 3, 2018.)
That has left unanswered the question of why a 64-year-old former accountant, real estate investor, small plane pilot and high-limit video poker player assembled his arsenal and attack the concert crowd.
Paddock was characterized by police as a loner with no religious or political affiliations who became obsessed with guns, spent more than $1.5 million in the two years before the shooting and distanced himself from his girlfriend and family.
Paddock’s gambling habits made him a sought-after casino patron. Over several days, Mandalay Bay employees readily let him use a service elevator to take suitcases to the $590-per-night suite he had been provided for free.
(Using exclusive surveillance footage obtained from MGM Resorts, we pieced together the last days of Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas gunman. He plays video poker, laughs with hotel staff and hauls bag after bag of weapons into his suite. Courtesy of The New York Times and YouTube. Posted on Mar 22, 2018.)
The room had a commanding view of the Strip and the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert grounds across the street.
After breaking out windows, Paddock fired 1,057 shots in 11 minutes, police have said.
Jim Murren, the chief executive and CEO of MGM Resorts International, issued a statement calling the shooting “an unforgettable act of terror.”
MGM owns the Mandalay Bay hotel, where the gunman was when he opened fire into an outdoor concert crowd below on the Las Vegas Strip.
“October 1 will forever be a day of remembrance, reflection and mourning as we struggle to comprehend the incomprehensible — the senseless act of evil that caused such a tragic loss of life, along with the suffering that we know continues,” Murren said.
(The company is arguing that it can’t be held liable for the deaths, injuries and other damages because the security company that it hired for the Route 91 Harvest Festival is protected by a federal anti-terrorism act. Courtesy of KTNV Channel 13 Las Vegas and YouTube. Posted on Jul 17, 2018.)
(Remembering the 58 people were killed in Las Vegas, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. These are their names. Courtesy of NBC News and YouTube. Posted on Oct 6, 2017.)
