Entertainment turns tragic
A look at concerts and other events taken over by deadly violence
Las Vegas’ Route 91 Harvest country music festival was tragically cut short Sunday night when a gunman opened fire on the crowd, killing 58 people and wounding nearly 500 others. The attack took place during the headlining set by Jason Aldean, who later called the events “beyond horrific.”
The incident was only the most recent in a long line of attacks and mass murders perpetrated at live events and theaters, from the disorder and death at a Northern California rock festival to the recent bombing of a British pop concert.
Dec. 6, 1969 Altamont Speedway chaos A hastily organized outdoor concert headlined by the Rolling Stones and taking place 50 miles east of San Francisco descended into chaos amid overdoses, accidents and violence. The melee reached a peak when a concert attendee named Meredith Hunter drew a gun and was stabbed to death near the stage by members of the Hells Angels, who were hired as the event’s security. The killing was captured on film and included in the 1970 documentary “Gimme Shelter.” Several other fatal incidents were reported, with one concertgoer drowning in a canal and two more dying after being run over by a car.
Oct. 23, 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis During a sold-out performance of the musical “NordOst,” the Dubrovka Theater was seized by more than 40 armed Chechen separatists, led by Movsar Barayev, who were demanding Russia’s withdrawal from Chechnya. The attackers took 850 hostages and killed two of them after two days. On the fourth day of the standoff, Russian special forces pumped an unidentified gas into the theater’s ventilation system, which ended up killing all of the attackers but also killed 130 of the hostages.
Dec. 8, 2004 Alrosa Villa nightclub shooting Grammy-nominated guitarist and former Pantera member “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was one of five people killed when an ex-Marine named Nathan Gale jumped onstage and began firing during a performance by Abbot’s band, Damageplan, at a Columbus, Ohio, nightclub. Police shot and killed Gale at the scene.
July 20, 2012 “The Dark Knight Rises” shooting During a midnight showing of the third film in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy at a theater in Aurora, Colo., a heavily armed shooter named James E. Holmes killed 12 theatergoers and wounded 70 others. Holmes was captured and is serving 12 consecutive life sentences plus 3,318 years without the possibility of parole. At the trial, his defense team unsuccessfully argued that he had been “floridly psychotic.”
July 23, 2015 “Trainwreck” shooting Partway through a showing of the Amy Schumer comedy “Trainwreck” in a Lafayette, La., movie theater, John Russell Houser stood up and opened fire on the crowd with a semiautomatic handgun, killing two people and injuring nine. After an aborted escape attempt, Houser returned to the theater and committed suicide.
Nov. 13, 2015 Paris attacks More than 130 people were killed and hundreds injured in a series of shootings and explosions in Paris. The Bataclan concert hall, where California band Eagles of Death Metal was performing, served as the attack’s epicenter. Two of the gunmen committed suicide at the scene, while a third was later killed by police.
June 10, 2016 Christina Grimmie murder Christina Grimmie, a former contestant on NBC’s “The Voice,” was shot and killed during a post-concert meet-and-greet with fans in Orlando, Fla. Grimmie was shot about 10:30 p.m. and pronounced dead after midnight. The gunman, identified as Kevin James Loibl, killed himself at the scene.
June 12, 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting A heavily armed gunman who had reportedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State stormed into the packed gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Fla., and began firing into the crowd, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others. The attacker, Omar Mateen, was killed by police.
May 22, 2017 Manchester Arena bombing Twenty-two people were killed and more than 59 others were injured in an explosion at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that police said was caused by Salman Abedi, a suicide bomber carrying an improvised explosive device.
Oct. 1, 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival attack Fifty-eight people were killed and nearly 500 others injured when a gunman opened fire at a country music festival opposite the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, authorities said. The gunman, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, a resident of Mesquite, Nev., killed himself in his hotel room, authorities said.