Vegas victims mourned on anniversary
LAS VEGAS — As a cloudstreaked orange sunset glowed over Las Vegas, officials, victims’ families and survivors of last year’s mass shooting at a country music festival marked the first anniversary of the tragedy by placing roses on a tribute wall and dedicating a memorial garden Monday night.
The ceremony at dusk near the city’s downtown drew at least 200 people, including Gov. Brian Sandoval and former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona, herself a survivor of a 2011 mass shooting.
The quarter-acre garden, which features a tree for each of the 58 victims and an oak that represents life, is the only permanent public space that has been created in the memory of 58 people who were killed when a gunman opened fired from a high-rise casino-resort suite on a crowd of 22,0000.
The garden, built by volunteers starting days after the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting, was the community’s way of reacting to the searing violence, according to the project’s creator.
“We’ve pushed back with a very deliberate act of compassion,” Jay Pleggenkuhle said Monday.
The dedication was one of a number of somber events held Monday in the glimmering city, known for its gambling and entertainment, to mark the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
As dawn broke over Las Vegas Monday, a flock of doves were released at a ceremony, with each bird bearing a leg band with the name of one of the 58 people slain.
“Today we remember the unforgettable. Today, we comfort the inconsolable,” Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval told several hundred survivors , families of victims, first-responders and elected officials who gathered at the dawn ceremony at an outdoor amphitheater.
He added: “Today, we are reminded of the pain that never really goes away.”
The sunrise ceremony was followed by memorials, prayer services, blood drives and dedications to commemorate the lives lost. The giant casino marquees were set to go dark in unison Monday night with the names of the victims to be read shortly after.