Las Vegas victims honoured on anniversary of shooting
A sombre sunrise remembrance ceremony started Monday in Las Vegas with survivors , families of victims, first-responders and elected officials remembering the lives lost when one year ago when a gunman opened fire on a crowd attending an outdoor country music concert in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Several hundred people gathered at an outdoor amphitheatre during an event that began with a prayer and words from Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. “Today we remember the unforgettable. Today, we comfort the inconsolable,” Sandoval said. “Today, we are reminded of the pain that never really goes away.” Among the attendees who are offering prayers, songs and speeches at the event was Mynda Smith.
She remembered her sister, Nyesa Davis Tonks, who pronounced her name “Neesha” and was a 46-year-old single mother originally from the Salt Lake City area raising three boys in Las Vegas. Smith said her sister she was energetic, adventurous, a fan of all kinds of music.
“I want to bring the message about living life to the fullest,” Smith said. “About how grateful we are for our community, the love and support that we got, and being ‘Vegas Strong.”’ Smith started a scholarship fund for victims’ children and says she reached loved ones of almost all the dead. Thirty-three were from California, six others from Nevada, four from Canada and 12 from other U.S. states. “It was a heartbreak every time,” Smith said. “This was a tragedy of grand scale. We have a long way to go. But we have to move forward with love and light.” Many who were cheering Jason Aldean’s headline set on the Las Vegas Strip late Oct. 1, 2017 , said later they thought the rapid crack-crack-crack they heard was fireworks - until people fell dead, wounded, bleeding.
From across neon-lit Las Vegas Boulevard, a gambler-turnedgunman with what police later called a meticulous plan but an unknown reason fired assaultstyle 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.
A flock of 58 doves will be released at the daybreak memorial, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo was also due to speak but was not expected to provide answers to what made Stephen Craig Paddock unleash his hail of gunfire.