LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Nine years after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Las Vegas is remembering the 58 people who lost their lives during the Route 91 Harvest music festival and the survivors whose lives were forever changed.
An emotional remembrance ceremony was held Thursday at the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, where families, survivors, first responders and community members gathered to honor those lost on Oct. 1, 2017.
Two additional victims later died from injuries connected to the shooting, bringing the total number of people who lost their lives as a result of the shooting to 60.
More than 20,000 people were attending the final night of the Route 91 Harvest festival when gunfire erupted from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
When everything changed
It was shortly after 10 p.m. when the first shots were fired.
Kelly McMahill, who was an LVMPD captain at the time, was on the Las Vegas Strip with her family, along with her husband, Kevin McMahill, who was then an LVMPD undersheriff.
As reports began flooding their phones, they quickly realized something much more serious was unfolding.
“I could hear gunfire in the background and he said, ‘I need you to get Kevin, there is a mass shooting on the Strip,’” Kelly McMahill recalled.
For many at the festival, however, the first moments were marked by confusion.
As the gunfire continued, thousands of people began running for cover and searching for a way out of the festival grounds.
“I was shot in the face and almost killed, and I lost a third of my blood supply after I was shot,” 1 October survivor Natalie Grumet said.
Another survivor, Teche Bergeron, said she was injured but managed to escape the festival grounds.
“We got out really fast. I was injured by gunfire, but I ran all the way to MGM and then to the hospital,” Bergeron said.
A massive emergency response
About 10 minutes after the shooting began, around 10:15 p.m., officers were making their way toward the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay, where the gunfire was coming from.
Around that time, police say the gunman fired his final rounds.
As officers worked to reach the hotel room, hospitals across the Las Vegas Valley began preparing for an unprecedented influx of patients.
At University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, Chief of Trauma Dr. Deborah Kuhls and dozens of medical workers initially expected between five and 10 patients.
That number quickly changed.
“We got our first notification that there was a shooting on the Strip. We initially got notices that they thought we would get 5-10 patients and literally a minute or two later we got updates and it was 10-20, 20-50, maybe 50-100 or more patients coming in,” Kuhls said.
In total, Dr. Kuhls says 104 patients were treated at UMC that night.
Around 11:20 p.m., officers breached the suspect’s hotel room and found the gunman dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Nine years of remembering and healing
In the years since Oct. 1, the Las Vegas community has continued to remember the lives lost and support those who survived.
For Debby Allen, who lost her son, Christopher Roybal, in the shooting, the continued remembrance serves as a reminder of what it means to be “Vegas Strong.”
Allen thanked the Las Vegas community, local leaders, first responders and the Resiliency Center and those who maintain the Healing Garden for continuing to honor the victims year after year.
“To our first responders, your courage and your presence continuing to hold the community together, I will continue to be grateful for all you did that night and all you continue to do, and to all of you it is because your collective effort that their love continues to shine through every year. Together we remember, together we honor, together we keep their love alive.”
A permanent place to remember
The Las Vegas Community Healing Garden was created just four days after the shooting as a place for people to come together, grieve and begin healing.
Now, nearly nine years later, plans are moving forward for a permanent memorial at the site where the tragedy unfolded.
The Forever One Memorial is scheduled to break ground Friday at the former Route 91 festival site.
The memorial is intended to provide a permanent place to remember the victims and honor the survivors, first responders and others whose lives were forever changed by Oct. 1
