LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Five years ago Las VegasA night of country music turned into an evening of terror.
A man set fire to the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on October 1, 2017. It killed 58 people. Two others died of their injuries later, while hundreds more were injured.
Many of the survivors say since that awful night, they’ve become something of a family – the Route 91 family.
Pat Dalton Amico was just one of approximately 22,000 people The music festival.
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The Las Vegas Healing Garden sign reads, “Because Music we are forever families.”
(Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
The last five years he spent honoring the victims. Las Vegas massacre survivorsPerform at events such as the opening night reception for an exhibit that the Clark County Museum launched in celebration of the anniversary.
Amico, however, is a singer-songwriter and performer who has also survived.
When a man started shooting from the Mandalay Bay Hotel’s 32nd floor on the Las Vegas Strip, he was watching Jason Aldean perform.
“I don’t know how many rounds went into that first burst. Amico stated that he believed it was 150.
The bursts of bullets kept coming – more than a thousand rounds altogether.
Amico and his wife were heading for their car, which was parked near the scene when the shooting started. They were right in front of the crowd.
“[My wife] asked me if we were going to die here, and I said, ‘I don’t know, I’ll do the best I can to get you home to the kids and grandkids. But I see a lot of young people going down, and I don’t think they’re tripping,’” he said.
He described the gunshots in the hallway as “unending” as they tried to find their way to the exit. This proved to be a challenge.
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“Wherever I go, regardless of whether it’s in hotels or concerts, I always make sure I am aware of exits and people around it. That was something I’ve never done enough of before. [the shooting],” Amico said. “One thing that made me realize that was October 1, when a lot people didn’t know where to turn.”
Shae Diaz, another survivor, also didn’t know where the exits were. She remembered attending the music festival once before and found it confusing.
“I remember kind of having an ‘oh s—’ moment. Diaz was 19 years old when she said that she didn’t know how to get into and out of the place.
Shae Diaz, left went to 2017 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival along with her family. She survived the Las Vegas massacre which saw 58 victims killed that night.
(Shae Diaz)
She and her sister sat on the left side of stage each day during the festival. She suggested that they move to the right side on Sunday, October 1.
But some of her friends didn’t agree, so they stayed put, on the left. What they didn’t know at the time was that the gunshots would come from the right side.
“Which in end would actually save us lives. She said that she believed it.
THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS
Diaz recalls feeling frustrated when her sister, 17 years old, left her to return to her Mandalay Bay hotel room. She wasn’t feeling well.
That frustration quickly turned to relief, knowing her sister wasn’t in the line of fire as Diaz went into fight or flight mode.
She said, “We couldn’t do anything except try to survive.”
Her initial reaction to the gunshots was that it sounded almost like a speaker had malfunctioned. Some described the initial sound like a helicopter passing or fireworks going off.
But when Diaz saw her favorite singer Jason Aldean’s face go blank, she knew something wasn’t right.
Diaz said, “That’s when it was when I knew, like okay, this is actually happening.”
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She lay down for what she believes to have been two full clips of the gun shooting. She fled after the next round of silence.
Diaz described it as “a scene from a movie” with chaos and people trying to climb over the fence to escape.
The fence had a long line of men on the other side, helping people get over it. Diaz still has scars left from climbing over.
“We were wearing boots and had cuts all over our bodies. One girl, I recall, took off her shoes and started running. She was wearing heels and was running over glass bottles.
Diaz ended up sprinting miles away to a McDonald’s close to the Las Vegas airport.
FIGHT, FLIGHT, OR SAVE LIFES
Pat Amico and his wife finally reached their pickup truck. But they didn’t just drive away.
Amico began to load people in the truck bed, eventually saving 10 lives.
“I saw a young lady go down. To the dismay and surprise of everyone in the truck, I jumped back into the truck. I ran over and picked her. Amico stated, “I felt the blood running down my arms so I carried her back to the truck and placed her in.” “It was like a constant until it couldn’t be fit any other person.”
Five years after the Las Vegas massacre, four survivors and the mother of one victim met at the Healing Garden.
(Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
Amico didn’t care where the shooter was. His only concern was to help others and get them to safety.
He said, “I saw so many people that I’ll call heroes that morning, rushing to help with bullets and helping people stop the bleeding, using their own clothes and shirts.”
There are still bloodstains on the pickup truck’s back. Amico says he’s never washed it.
He said, “This truck did lots of good that night.”
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LOSS TURNS Into GAIN
On October 1, 2017, fifty-eight people received their angel wings. Two more were added in the years to come. Amico and the survivors lost their lives but they gained thousands of family members.
They are the Route 91 family.
We don’t have 22,000 survivors of the concert. Amico stated that 2 million survivors were still alive in the city. “We You are always part of the familyWe belong to something we don’t want to be apart of. “We won’t forget what the majority will never remember.”
HEALING
A healing garden, a museum exhibition and music are now available to tell the stories about the survivors, victims and their families.
Amico stated that Oct. 1 was the darkest day in our community’s history. “And Oct. 2, was the most brightest I’ve ever witnessed this community, the manner people came together.”
South Casino Boulevard is the location of the Las Vegas Healing Garden. This is where people can bring flowers or gifts for the victims.
(Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
Following the tragedy, Amico composed the song “Forever Family”.
The song was performed by him for Fox News at Healing Garden, just a few days after the five year anniversary.
A lyric from the song reiterates the familial bond that emerged from tragedy: “What we feel and what we’ve become, we’re forever family, Route 91.”
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The Healing Garden is a permanent memorial that volunteers keep up, many of them survivors.
Many families visit the garden each year. Days after the five-year anniversary, one of the victims’ fathers re-painted the bench dedicated to his daughter who died.
You can find gifts for hope in the garden. These include pebbles that symbolize strength and bracelets saying “Love is your answer.”
The Clark County Museum recently opened a 22,000-piece exhibit dedicated to the five-year anniversary, “5 Years Later: Remember 1 October & Becoming Vegas Stronger.”
Following the Oct. 1, 2017 massacre, “Vegas Strong”, was a well-known saying. Clark County Museum will host an exhibit about the five-year anniversary from Jan. 30, 2023.
(Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
It includes letters, signs, posters, and other items that were left behind at the original memorial, in addition to items donated by survivors and first responders.
One survivor gave a straw cowboy helmet as one of the artifacts.
“She had been to multiple places.” Country music concerts“She was from all over the country and had always worn this straw hat,” Leonard Lanier (curator of exhibits at Clark County Museum) said.
The hat had been worn by the woman at Route 91 Harvest Music Festival Oct. 1, 2017. A week later, the woman returned to Las Vegas to visit the memorial that had been created.
Lanier stated that she saw the 58 crosses and decided her hat would be better to go with those who did not make it through the night.
Clark County Museum’s five-year-old anniversary exhibit features items from original memorial, survivors and their families. This is a list of all 58 victims that night and the two other victims who died later from injuries (notated with a double asterisk).
(Fox News/Ashley Soriano)
The exhibit features 45 U.S. states as well as at least 10 other countries (including Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom).
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Lanier stated, “A lot of the times when you deal about a historical topic, especially one that has been in the distant past, there aren’t survivors, no people who have lived through it, for you to interview, or to interact with.”[This]It’s an emotionally charged event that happened only five years ago.
The exhibit will be open through January 30, with admission at $2 for adults, and $1 for seniors and children.
