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Megan Murphy, while wearing a hat, kisses Cara Knoedler as Kenneth Wright wipes his eyes off the first anniversary of the mass shooting on Monday, October 1, 2018 in Las Vegas. Behind them is the filming site. Hundreds of mass shooting survivors in Las Vegas formed a human chain around the closed site of a country music festival where an armed gunman opened fire on October 1, 2017. (AP Photo / John Locher)
LAS VEGAS – The marquees of the glamorous Las Vegas district turned off their lights for three minutes on Monday night as authorities slowly read the 58 names of people killed a year earlier during the country's deadliest shootout in modern history.
The names of the murdered were recited in front of a silent crowd punctuated by sobs shortly after 10:05 pm, almost the exact time when an armed man in a suite of the Mandalay Bay casino-complex opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 people.
Rick Barnette, whose 34-year-old daughter Carrie was one of those who were killed, sobbed and stared at the sky on Monday as the names were read. He was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of his daughter.
"It's really hard – every night when I go to bed, I think about it every day," said Barnette after the ceremony. "They say you're in trouble, I do not think you can put it back."
The ceremony ended a dark day of events bringing together survivors and family members of the victims of the country music festival last year.
Jane Matusz of San Diego, who had attended the festival with friends, said the memories of the October 1, 2017 shooting were back on Monday as she was attending memorial events in Las Vegas.
"There is something very comforting about being with other survivors (and) family members," she said. "It's a very strange club to belong to."
A few hours earlier, the families of the victims, survivors and elected officials celebrated the anniversary of the tragedy by placing roses on a wall of homage and dedicating a memorial garden to downtown.
The dedication ceremony under a cloud-streaked orange sunset drew at least 200 people, including former US Republican Gabby Giffords of Arizona, herself a survivor of a 2011 shootout.
The garden, which includes a tree for each of the 58 victims and an oak tree that represents life, is the only permanent public space created in memory of the shooting. It was built by volunteers and created a few days after filming as a means of community response to incendiary violence, according to the co-creator of the project.
"We fell back with a very deliberate act of compassion," said Jay Pleggenkuhle.
The city known for its games and entertainment began tribute Monday with a ceremony at sunrise where a flock of doves was released, each bird wearing a leg band bearing the name of one of the 58 people killed.
"Today, we remember the unforgettable, today we comfort the inconsolable," said Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, to several hundred survivors, families of victims, rescuers and elected officials who gathered at dawn in an outdoor amphitheater.
He added, "Today, we remember the pain that never really disappears."
The festival venue which became a massacre site was not used in the year following the shooting. MGM Resorts International, owner of the Mandalay Bay property and hotel, did not say whether or when it would reopen.
On Monday night, hundreds of shootout survivors formed a human chain around the closed site, linking their arms and hands to express their solidarity. Nearby, a procession of pickup trucks with American flags floating in their truck bed drove the Strip while honking.
Many who applauded Jason Aldean's title at the Road 91 Harvest Festival at the end of October 1, 2017, later stated that they thought the fast cracking was a fireworks – until people fall dead, get hurt and bleed.
On the other side of Las Vegas Boulevard, a player turned shooter with what the police later called a meticulous plan but an unknown reason fired assault rifles for 11 minutes from the 32nd floor windows of the Mandalay Bay hotel in the concert hall below. Police said he was then killed.
Medical examiners then determined that the 58 deaths were due to shots. Another 413 people were injured and police said at least 456 people were injured fleeing the carnage.
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said the police investigation was over in August. According to one report, hundreds of interviews and thousands of hours of investigative work could not provide answers to what prompted Stephen Craig Paddock to unleash a hail of gunfire.
This left unanswered the question of why a former accountant, real estate investor, small plane pilot and high-limit video poker player collected his arsenal and attacked the crowd of concerts.
Paddock was characterized by the police as a loner without religious or political affiliation who became obsessed with guns, spent over $ 1.5 million in the two years preceding the shooting and distanced himself from his girlfriend and his family.
Paddock's gambling habits have made him a sought-after casino client. For several days, Mandalay Bay employees easily let him use a service lift to bring suitcases after $ 590 per night for free. The room had a breathtaking view of the Strip and the concert grounds of Route 91 Harvest Festival, just across the street.
After breaking the windows, Paddock fired 1,057 shots in 11 minutes, the police said.
Jim Murren, Managing Director and CEO of MGM Resorts International, issued a statement calling the killing "an unforgettable act of terror."
"October 1st will be forever a day of remembrance, reflection and mourning as we struggle to understand the incomprehensible – the insane act of evil that has caused such tragic loss of lives, as well as the suffering that we always know, "said Murren.
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Associate Press authors Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas and Brady McCombs in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
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Find the full coverage of Las Vegas Mass Shot AP here: https://apnews.com/tag/LasVegasmassshooting
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