LAS VEGAS – A permanent memorial to the victims and survivors of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history will feature 58 candle-like beams under a plan officials in Las Vegas approved Tuesday.
With the design officially in place, Clark County commissioners will shift their focus to selecting a nonprofit organization that will oversee fundraising and construction and maintenance of the project.
It took years to get to this point in the process and it could be years before the hood is unveiled at the site of the attack on the Las Vegas Strip.
Commissioners voted unanimously to proceed with the design recommended by the October 1 Memorial Committee, which was formed in 2019 to develop a design concept.
The committee, which was disbanded Tuesday after commissioners voted, included a survivor and the sister of one of the 60 people killed in the October 2017 shooting.
“We are grateful to the design team, family members, survivors and everyone who participated in this process to create a memorial to remember the events of October 1,” said Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson, whose district includes the site of the celebration. “Thanks to the committee’s hard work, a very unique process was put in place to ensure that anyone with an idea for the memorial could be heard.”
This rendering shows one of five potential designs for a permanent memorial to be built on the Las Vegas Strip to honor victims, survivors and first responders of mass shootings.AP
The number 58 in the final design represents the initial number of people killed when a gunman opened fire from a suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel into the country music festival crowd below.
In addition to those who died at the scene or immediately after the attack, hundreds of people were injured, including two women who initially survived but died in subsequent years from their gunshot wounds.
Mynda Smith, whose sister Neysa Tonks was killed, said Tuesday that she was grateful to be part of the memorial committee.
“I never thought that this journey could be filled with so much light,” Smith said.
A cross was placed near the famous Las Vegas sign to honor those who lost their lives in the shooting. AP
Tonks, a 46-year-old mother of three, has called Las Vegas home for about two decades.
“He loved this city,” Smith said. “I know he will be honored, along with the 57 others who died that night, in a beautiful way that will bring light to our family. And I know it will bring light to all the survivors.”
The final memorial concept is the work of local firm JCJ Architecture. It envisions a garden shaped like an infinity symbol at the northeast corner of the former concert venue, with 22,000 lights representing the number of people attending that night’s performance.
A looped path will take visitors through the park grounds, past a 58-foot (18-meter) glass tower and to a “memorial ring” with 58 candles. Each beam will display the victim’s name and photo.
People ran from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gunshots. Getty Images
Commissioners also approved an alternative design on Tuesday that would feature 15 large horse statues representing the home states and countries of the 60 people killed, as well as two smaller horses in honor of the dozens of children who lost parents in the attack. .
Amber Manka, whose mother died two years after she was shot and paralyzed in the attack, said she found the final design both beautiful and disappointing.
“This is a beautiful memorial for the 58 and their families. They deserve such a beautiful picture of their loved ones,” he told The Associated Press. But, he replied, “At this point, I’m angry. My mother would not have suffered for two years if she had not been shot that night. The shooting shook our family and left us without our mother, grandmother, daughter and sister.”
The shooter, Stephen Paddock. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Manka said he was awaiting a response to a message he sent to the committee outlining his concerns. His mother, Kimberly Gervais, spent her last years in and out of hospitals and treatment centers in Southern California, where she lived.
The district did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on the final design focus on number 58.
But over the years, the committee has repeatedly emphasized that its final design recommendations will be driven by public input gathered in a series of surveys and roundtable discussions.
“The biggest thing to remember, for anyone affected, however they are affected, is that this process will seek input to influence how the memorial is developed,” Tennille Pereira, chair of the committee, said in 2020 as she addressed the updated death toll on one of the committee’s first meetings.
The permanent memorial will be separate from the community healing garden built in downtown Las Vegas by more than 1,000 volunteers in the days after the shooting.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
