Las Vegas Shooting
November 10, 2017
On October 1st at 10:00 at night, gunshots were head near Mandalay Hotel in Las Vegas. Frantically running, the pushing of people out-of-the-way and pure bewilderment on people’s faces ensued. From being a country concert attended by people from all over, it transformed into a horrific, tragic night for everyone.
Jason Aldean, a country artist was performing at the Route 19 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas near the Mandalay Bay Hotel. He was 30 minutes into singing his song while everyone kept cheering him on. At 10:05 PM, shots were fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Hotel to the crowd. Some people thought that it was fireworks at first, but it soon became obvious that it was gunshots as people were running in different directions, desperately trying to find cover. Terror soon started to spread to the crowd, and the police were soon on the scene trying to locate the shooter.
There were officers at the Mandalay Bay Hotel that heard the gunshots and made their way up to the 31st floor. Realizing that the gunshots were on the floor above them, police went to the 32nd floor where Jesus Campos, the security guard of the hotel, was found on the ground shot in one leg. Campos told them what room Paddock was in. The police had to make a plan for how they were going to get into his room.
At 11:20 PM, the SWAT team barged into Paddocks room; breaking down the door with a detonated device that exploded the door. They began to search the room to confirm that Paddock was alone. At this time, Paddock had already killed himself.
At 12:31 PM, it was over. The terror that rippled through the crowd was still evident, but those gathered were relieved the ordeal was over.
Since the shooting, memorials have been set up for the victims and support from countless celebrities and people began to flood in. Some celebrities include Rihanna who tweeted on October 2nd: “Saying a prayer for all the victims & their loved ones, also for the residents & visitors of Las Vegas! This was a horrific act of terror!!” and Chloë Grace Moretz who shared on Instagram an image overlooking the Mandalay Bay with the words “PRAY FOR LAS VEGAS” written across it. Her caption being “My heart goes out to everyone affected by the horrific events that occurred in Las Vegas, please stay safe and to the Las Vegas police department who ran into a field of open fire, you are all true heroes.”
One memorial was held for Quinton Robbins who died in Las Vegas. His friends and family decided to paint a “Q” in honor of that being his favorite letter on a hillside on October 21st, 2017. The letter was painted near the letter B, that stood for Basic High School where he coached basketball. This is one of the many memorials that happened after the shooting.
