Design Approved for a Memorial to the Victims and Survivors of the 2017 Las Vegas Mass Shooting

LAS VEGAS – The permanent memorial to the victims and survivors of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history will feature 58 candle-shaped lightning bolts under a plan Las Vegas officials approved Tuesday.

With the design officially in place, Clark County Commissioners will shift their focus to selecting a nonprofit organization that will oversee fundraising and construction and maintenance of the project.

It took years to get to this point in the process and it could be years more before the memorial at the attack site on the Las Vegas Strip is unveiled.

The commissioners voted unanimously to proceed with the design recommended by the October 1 Commemorative Committee, which was formed in 2019 to develop a design concept.

The committee, which dissolved Tuesday after commissioners voted, included a survivor and the sister of one of the 60 people who died in the October 2017 shooting.

“We are grateful to the design teams, family members, survivors and everyone who participated in this process to create a memorial to remember the events of October 1,” said Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson, whose district includes the festival site. “Thanks to the hard work of the committee, a unique process was put in place to ensure that anyone with an idea for the memorial could be heard.”

This rendering shows one of five potential designs for a permanent memorial to be built on the Las Vegas Strip to honor the victims, survivors and first responders of the mass shooting.

The number 58 in the final design represents the initial number of people killed when a gunman opened fire from a 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay Hotel into a crowd at a country music festival.

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In addition to those who died at the scene or shortly after the attack, hundreds of people were injured, including two women who initially survived but died in the following years from causes attributed to their gunshot wounds.

Mynda Smith, whose sister Neysa Tonks was murdered, said Tuesday she was grateful to be part of the memorial committee.

“I never thought this journey could be filled with so much light,” Smith said.

Crosses were placed near the famous Las Vegas sign in honor of those killed in the shooting. PA

Tonks, a 46-year-old mother of three, had called Las Vegas home for about two decades.

“She loved this city,” Smith said. “I know she will be honored, along with the other 57 people who died that night, in such a beautiful way that will bring light to our families. And I know that she will bring light to all survivors.”

The final memorial concept is the work of local firm JCJ Architecture. He imagines a park shaped like an infinity symbol in what was the northeast corner of the old concert hall, with 22,000 lights representing the number of people who attended the show that night.

A circular path will take visitors through a garden area, past a 18-meter (58-foot) glass tower and to a “memorial ring” with the 58 candles. Each beam will show the name and a photo of a victim.

People flee the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gunshots. fake images

Commissioners also approved an alternate design Tuesday that would include 15 large horse statues representing the states and countries of origin of the 60 people who died, as well as two smaller horses honoring the dozens of children who lost their parents in the attack.

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Amber Manka, whose mother died two years after she was shot and paralyzed in the attack, said she finds the final design both beautiful and disappointing.

“This is a beautiful memorial to the 58 and their families. “They deserve such a beautiful representation of their loved ones,” he told The Associated Press. But she responded: “At this point, I’m angry. My mom would never have suffered for two years if she hadn’t been shot that night. “That shooting shook our family and left us without a mother, grandmother, daughter and sister.”

The shooter, Stephen Paddock. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

Manka said he was waiting for a response to a message he sent to the committee outlining his concerns. Her mother, Kimberly Gervais, spent her final years in and out of hospitals and treatment centers in Southern California, where she lived.

The county did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the final design approach in issue 58.

But over the years, the committee repeatedly stressed that its final design recommendation would be driven by public input gathered in a series of polls and roundtable discussions.

“The most important point to keep in mind, for anyone affected, regardless of how they were affected, is that this process will seek input to influence how the monument develops,” Tennille Pereira, chair of the committee, said in a statement. 2020 while addressing the updated death toll in one of the committee’s first meetings.

The permanent memorial will stand apart from a community healing garden built in downtown Las Vegas by more than 1,000 volunteers in the days after the shooting.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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