Las Vegas reflects and moves forward 1 year after most deadly mass shooting in US history
Around Las Vegas, there are scattered remembrances of the horrors of that night a year ago, to the night a gunman turned the fun of the glittering Las Vegas Strip into a nightmare of death and despair
A small bouquet of dried flowers is wedged inside the padlock on Gate 5 of the killing ground that was the Route 91 Harvest Festival one recent day, and it was the only visible reminder that it was the site of the worst mass shooting in modern American history.
A peek inside the chain-link fence, covered in green sheeting to keep out prying eyes, revealed a sprawling patch of asphalt and little else. Towering above were the gold windows of the Mandalay Bay, where a gambler spent the last minutes of his life in room 32-135 taking the lives of 58 others in a meticulously planned slaughter.
Around Las Vegas, there are scattered remembrances of the horrors of that night a year ago.
Almost every week, there is another court-ordered release of police body-camera videos that provide flashbacks to the night the gunman turned the fun of the glittering Las Vegas Strip into a nightmare of death and despair. And lawsuits by MGM Resorts International to force survivors to give up their right to sue the casino company that owns Mandalay Bay opened fresh wounds over the summer.
But the “Vegas Strong” T-shirts and car stickers have largely been put away. The original handmade white crosses for each victim have long since been taken away from the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign to eventually live in a museum in neighbouring Henderson, though some new ones were brought in for the anniversary.