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A28 u.s. news
Diasabra 2 OctOber 2021

4th year since Las Vegas massacre: ‘Be there for each other’

(AP) — People who are healing Hyatt spoke to several hundred peo- that happened that night, four years The gunman, Stephen Paddock, a
and some still struggling gath- ple during a sunrise ceremony at the later,” Hyatt said. “People thrive and 64-year-old retired postal service
ered Friday to remember those Clark County Government Center in people struggle to live with the physi- worker, accountant and real estate
who died and were injured dur- Las Vegas. cal and mental pain, and our lives are investor who became a high-stakes
ing the deadliest mass shooting forever changed.” casino video poker player, killed him-
in modern U.S. history four years She remembered her slain broth- self before police reached him. Local
ago on the Las Vegas Strip. er, Kurt von Tillow, a trucker from The morning memorial featured a and federal investigators concluded
Northern California, before a screen song, “Four Years After,” sung by he meticulously planned the attack
“I was wounded. Those physi- at an outdoor amphitheater that dis- Matt Sky, that was composed for the and appeared to seek notoriety, but
cal wounds have healed,” said Dee played photos of the dead. Fifty-eight anniversary by Mark R. Johnson and they said they could not identify a
Ann Hyatt, whose daughter also was people were killed that night, and two released with multi-Grammy award clear motive.
wounded and whose brother died in others died later. More than 850 were winner Alan Parsons.
the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting. “But the injured. Authorities including police, elected
lasting scars for our family remain.” The event was the first of several and government officials and people
“We continue to live the impact of all scheduled Friday in Las Vegas and involved with the resiliency center
elsewhere, including a livestream to refuse now to use his name.
California’s Ventura County hosted
by a support group called “So Cal MGM Resorts International, owner
Route 91 Heals.” The group also of the hotel and the concert venue,
planned an afternoon ceremony at a is donating 2 acres (0.8 hectare) for
park in Thousand Oaks. the memorial — just off the Strip at
a spot near a church where people
Tennille Pereira, director of the Vegas sought refuge and medical help dur-
Strong Resiliency Center, a Las Ve- ing the shooting.
gas program set up to support those
affected by the shooting, noted that The company and its insurers have
about 60% of tickets sold to the fate- almost finished paying $800 million
ful concert were purchased by Cali- to more than 4,000 claimants in an
fornia residents. out-of-court settlement reached a
year ago that avoided negligence tri-
The names of the dead will be read als in several states. The company ac-
beginning at 10:05 p.m., the time the knowledged no liability.
shooting started, at a downtown Las
Vegas Community Healing Garden. “It’s good for the community and
the victims that the case is resolved,”
Pereira also is chairwoman of a Clark Robert Eglet, a Las Vegas attorney
County committee developing plans who spent a year arranging the settle-
for a permanent memorial. She said ment, said Thursday. “And it was the
next year’s fifth anniversary may fea- right thing for MGM to do.”
ture a dedication of the memorial at
a corner of the former concert venue Pereira said this week that she felt a
across Las Vegas Boulevard from the softening of emotions around the an-
Mandalay Bay resort. That’s where niversary.
the shooter spent several days gath-
ering an arsenal of assault-style rifles “Where the community is is differ-
before breaking out windows of his ent. Maybe it’s because we just came
32nd floor suite and unleashing car- out of this (coronavirus) pandemic
nage. and we’re starting to feel a regular
pace again,” Pereira said.
Jill Winter of Nashville, Tennessee,
remembers the nearly 10-minute “We still remember, we still respect,
barrage of rapid-fire gunshots into we still honor. But it’s not raw like
the open-air concert crowd. it was, and jarring. It just feels more
hopeful and peaceful.”
Like many around her, Winter
thought at first it was fireworks. This was the first year since the
Then, people fell dead and wounded. shooting that Winter wasn’t in Las
Winter ducked for cover until police Vegas to mark the anniversary. She
SWAT officers arrived and told her to said she would gather Friday with
run. She remembers yelling, “Make other “Routers” at a friend’s restau-
him stop! Make him stop!” rant in Memphis, Tennessee.
Winter, now 49, counsels others she “It’s always emotional. But it’s also
calls “the Router family” who expe- really heartwarming,” she said. “The
rienced the deadly night at the Route fact that we’ve come together and not
91 Harvest Festival. “Router” sounds let evil win is so amazing.”
better than “survivor,” she explained.
Hyatt, speaking at the memorial, said
“There is a lot of healing taking place,” four years have taught her that some
she said in a telephone interview this things can’t be fixed.
week. “There are 22,000 of us that
were there. That doesn’t even include “All you can do is be there for each
other people that were impacted ... other,” she said. “Listen, cry, hug,
first responders, hospital employees, love and support one another. You
average citizens who were driving just need to be patient and loving and
down the Strip. All those people and caring to everyone you meet, because
all those different stories.” you don’t know what they’re going
through.”