Vegas tragedy hits close to home for 2 Wildcats
At 11:23 p.m. Sunday, Arizona Wildcats defensive end Justin Belknap received a text message from his mother, Anna.
Did you hear about what happened tonight in Vegas?
Belknap soon learned that there had been a shooting at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, his hometown. He cracked open his computer. He checked every social media outlet. He furiously texted his friends.
“I was very alarmed and confused, scared for my family’s and my friends’ well-being,” Belknap said Wednesday. “I knew a good amount of people at that concert.”
Fifty-eight people were killed, and more than 500 were injured when Stephen Paddock fired on the crowd at the Route 91 Harvest Festival from a suite at the Mandalay Bay Resort. No one Belknap knew was seriously injured. It could have been a lot worse for him and his family.
Belknap’s parents, his brother and his brother’s wife were thinking about attending the concert. They changed their mind at the last minute. They had to work the next morning.
“I made sure my brother and his wife weren’t there. They weren’t, thank God,” said Belknap, one of five current UA players from the Las Vegas area.
Like everyone else who has a connection to Las Vegas, Belknap has struggled to deal with the shock and scale of Sunday’s mass shooting. The third-year sophomore’s first instinct was to hop in his car and drive home — a 400-plusmile commute — to donate blood or do “whatever I can for my community.” Knowing he had practice early Tuesday morning, Belknap thought better of it.
But he didn’t sleep much that night, finally going to bed around 4 a.m. Monday, the players’ day off, was difficult.
Tony Fields, the father of UA freshman linebacker Tony Fields II, knows the feeling. The Fields family lives in the Green Valley neighborhood in Henderson, about 15 miles southeast of Las Vegas. The elder Tony and his wife, Lemisha, work at downtown Las Vegas hotels. Tony is a bartender at Bally’s, and he was working the night shift Sunday.
Tony II happened to be on the phone with a friend from back home when the friend received a call about the shooting. Tony II immediately tried to reach his father. The elder Tony didn’t answer at first because he was in the middle of his shift.
About 11:30 p.m., the elder Tony called his son and told him he was all right.
“It felt good for him to call and check,” the elder Fields said by phone Wednesday. “I’m usually the one checking on him. He was checking on dad this time.”
The younger Fields felt relief upon hearing from his father. His mother, asleep at home, hadn’t answered her phone either.
“There was a little bit of panic,” Tony II said. “Then again, I know my dad’s a smart man. I know he knows how to get out of situations. I knew he was going to be safe.”
The elder Fields said the casino at Bally’s was shut down, something he never had seen before in 20-plus years living and working in the Las Vegas area.
Guests who were staying at the hotel were instructed to retreat to their rooms. Others were ushered to a safe place. Chaos reigned outside.
“People are running down the strip,” the elder Fields said. “Nobody knows where gunshots are coming from. Security wasn’t letting anybody in. Then they started letting people in. It was like pandemonium.”
Two of the 58 victims killed were family friends of Colorado assistant coach Darrin Chiaverini. Two more coached against Tony Fields II in youth football.
“It’s so devastating,” Fields II said. The freshman visited home over the weekend, when the Wildcats had a bye. He and his friends attended a concert in Las Vegas this past summer. His father couldn’t help but think about that as the tragedy unfolded Sunday night.
“That was the scary thing,” the elder Fields said. “That could have been him.”
Recruiting update
Arizona received a verbal commitment from Tre Adams, a three-star receiver from Wakeland High in Frisco, Texas. Adams is listed at 6 feet 3 inches and will add size to a position of need.