Listen Here
By: Cory William Berlekamp
Twitter: @Cberlekamp
Email: coryberlekamp1@gmail.com
On the evening of Sunday, Oct. 1, what is being considered America’s deadliest mass shooting occurred at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nv.
64-year-old Stephan Haddock opened fire with an automatic rifle at 10:08 p.m. during the set of Country Music Singer Jason Aldean. Fifty-nine have been reported dead while at least 527 out of the 22,000 concert attendees have been reported injured.
Haddock used his hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino as his vantage point before being discovered by hotel security and LVPD. The shooter was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot when the SWAT team stormed his room.
The FBI made a statement saying that Haddock had no connection to international terrorist groups. Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo held a press conference during the aftermath of the shooting.
“We had no knowledge of this individual,” said Lombardo. “I don’t know how it could have been prevented.”
Although the attack happened Sunday evening, many Americans did not receive the news until Monday morning.
Nick Lamb, a sports event management major and junior at the University of Findlay, says that the shootings in Las Vegas was the first thing he saw Monday morning.
“I woke up and checked Facebook and it was the first thing that popped up,” Lamb said. “It was the number one thing that was trending and it was like, this is not how I wanted to start my day.” Lamb says he was planning a trip to Las Vegas next month.
“Concerts have been a big part of my life,” Lamb stated. “It’s just unfortunate that these things happen and it happens all too often but I’m going to keep myself on my toes.”
Vice President of Student Affairs David Emsweller sent out an email to faculty, staff and students at UF offering services to anyone affected by the shootings.
“There’s lots of places to go [for help],” said Emsweller. “But really it’s where you are most comfortable. It could be your faculty advisor, it could be a staff member you see all the time and mostly your friends.”
Sophomore Ashton Kester had grandparents vacationing in Las Vegas during the shooting.
“I woke up and got on social media and saw a bunch of people posting about praying for Vegas and stuff and thought ‘what happened?’” said Kester. “So I texted my mom and she told me that there was a mass shooting and instantly I thought ‘my grandparents are in Vegas, are they okay?’”
Kester’s grandparents were staying at Tahiti Village two and a half miles away from Mandalay Bay and were not present during the events on Sunday night.
“My grandparents thankfully weren’t involved in the shooting, but I definitely feel that if anybody did have somebody who was hit or even at the concert itself it would be traumatized,” said Kester.
The Office of Student Affairs and Oiler Success Center are both located in the Old Main building on Findlay’s Campus. Anyone is free to go and talk with the workers there. Counseling Services are also available to students and is located on 307 Frazer St. Licensed professionals are available for appointments or walk-in hours on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m..
The events in Las Vegas mark 521 mass shootings in the past 477 days in America with the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla. being the deadliest prior to this one. Emsweller says he heard about the news when he arrived on Findlay’s campus Monday morning.
“I think everyone should really think about what this means,” said Emsweller. “How do you deal with violence in the country? In what ways might there be a more proactive way to try and deal with things to hopefully prevent these things from happening.”
