According to the most recent updates, 59 people were killed and 527 were injured after Stephen Paddock opened fire at a packed country music festival opposite the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
Details on the victims have begun to emerge, as officials begin the daunting task of identifying victims and notifying the next of kin.
Some heroically sacrificed themselves:
Sonny Melton, 29, a registered nurse from Tennessee, was shot and killed in Las Vegas on Sunday night, according to his place of employment, Henry County Medical Center in Paris, Tennessee.His wife, Heather Melton, an Orthopedic Surgeon at Innovative Orthopedics, survived the mass shooting, the statement reads.In an interview with CNN affiliate WSMV, Heather Melton said her husband saved her life amid the gunfire. “He saved my life. He grabbed me and started running when I felt him get shot in the back,” she said.
Others had their personal celebrations tragically altered:
Carrie Barnette [34] was celebrating a friend’s 30th birthday in Las Vegas when she was shot in the chest. She died before reaching the hospital, her mother said.She was the oldest of three children, and family was her priority, said her mother, Mavis Barnette.“Beautiful child; she was my firstborn,” Mavis Barnette said. “She was always generous and helping everybody in every way. She loved her nieces and nephews and her sister and brother.
Others were there to reward themselves for working hard.
[Adrian] Murfitt, a 35-year-old commercial fisherman, had traveled to Nevada from his home in Anchorage, Alaska, after a successful season on the water, The Associated Press reported.Murfitt “was happy to pay some things off and had made some really good money,” his sister, Shannon Gothard, told the AP. He “decided to go out and celebrate and go to the concert and treat himself to something nice and fun.”
The dead also include those who normally protect-and-serve:
Las Vegas Police Officer Charleston Hartfield [34] was off duty when he attended the Route 91 Harvest Festival, one of many law enforcement officers who went to the country music concert. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Hartfield was a military veteran and coached youth football.
The lists from which the names below were compiled can be found Los Angeles Times, NBC News, and UK Daily Mail. They include these additional identities.
Denise Burditus
Sandy Casey and Melissa Rameriz
Erick Silva and Thomas Day Jr.
Michael Anderson
Dana Gardner, 52
Angela Gomez, 20
Jessica Klymchuk, 34
Rhonda LeRocque, 42
Rachael Parker, 33
John Phippen, 56
Quinton Robbins
Lisa Romero Muniz
Bailey Schweitzer, 20
Susan Smith, 53
Neysa Tonks
Jordan McIldoon
Jennifer Irvine
Christopher Roybal
Kurt Von Tillow
As you read the accounts, you can feel the love, joy, and energy that these people shared with others to the last moment. It is difficult to read some of the accounts of their passing without tearing up.
Their deaths are sad, dreadful losses for their families and the entire nation.
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