No Words

It’s hard to mentally process the mass shooting in Las Vegas last night.  Fifty-eight people are dead, at the time I’m writing this, and more than 500 are injured.  The shooter is a 64-year-old retired accountant from Orlando who lives in a retirement community near Vegas.  He killed himself as police were breaking into the hotel room where he was doing the shooting.

The casualties were among the 20,000-plus fans at the third day of a country music festival.  Jason Aldean was singing the third line of one of his hits when he dropped his guitar and ran off the stage.  He probably couldn’t hear the shots, but he saw the crowd reacting and I’m guessing a sound tech was able to warn him in his ear monitors.

The videos and news reports I’ve seen so far show the obvious panic.  Nobody knew where to run.  The tendency is to head toward the entrance where you came in, but it turns out that was the spot most in the sights of the shooter.  Artists who were still there when Aldean was performing reported hearing bullet hitting stage trusses and sound and light towers.

This kind of inexcusable, unforgettable tragedy hits each of us differently.  One of the most chilling parts for me is that I know that venue and hotel.  My company’s two-night iHeart Radio Music Festival has an afternoon component staged in that same spot.  I’ve stood on that spot three times in past years. This year’s event was only eight days ago and I know dozens of people who were there. 

The shots were fired from a room in the Mandalay Bay Hotel.  I stayed in that hotel a few years ago.

I’ve also met many of the singers who played this weekend, including Jason Aldean.

Enough about me!  Can you imagine the horror that was felt by those at the festival?  Realizing what sounded at first like fireworks was actually automatic rifle rounds.  People were looking in all directions for where the gunshots were coming from, but few looked UP.

I’ll never understand what can lead someone to plan - and this was definitely premeditated – to check into a room at a fancy hotel, bring in high-powered firearms and ammunition and a hammer-like tool to break the shatter-proof hotel windows that aren’t made to open … and shoot at thousands of people having a good time at a music event.

No words.

I have words to describe the scene and words to narrate the horror but no words to explain why someone would do this.

It is certainly terror in its most basic form, actions that scare people.  I’m planning to attend an outdoor concert in my area in just a few days.  There are no high-rise building near the venue and there has been security there for a long time, upgraded after mass casualty shootings in recent years. But there is still some underlying fear in my heart.

When disgruntled or power-hungry terrorist groups stage mass casualty scenarios, they usually have a stated reason and their members often fit known profiles of various types.  But a 64-year-old retired accountant with a penchant for playing high-dollar games in Vegas??? 

He’s dead, so we may never know his motive, but fear, anger, agitation, sorrow and depression are among the results of his actions last night.