As the fifth year of the tragic 1 October shooting passes throughout Las Vegas like a cold wind, we remember and honor the people who lost their lives during the travesty.
Clark County Coroner released the name of all victims with some victims being added later to the fatality count. People from California, Massachusetts to even the provinces of Canada are included in the list. They vary from 20 to 67 in age and were mothers and husbands, daughters and sisters, grandparents, and grandchildren.
They were at the Route 91 Harvest festival to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and to share their love for country music.
Multiple organizations and public officials have created public memorials, exhibits and pieces of art that honor the victims, whose lives were unjustly taken.
The Clark County Museum currently has an exhibit called “5 Years Later: Remembering 1 October & Becoming Vegas Stronger.”
“It’s important for us to honor the lives lost and forever changed because of 1 October,” Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson, whose district includes the museum and festival site, said in a news release. “Our community can be proud of how we responded to the darkness of that day and remember the outpouring of love and support we received from each other and from across the country and around the world.
“It’s also important to recognize the strength and resiliency that we continue to demonstrate as a community in response to the tragedy with every passing year.”
Every injury and life that was lost — or saved — has impacted our city in ways that we never expected prior to the shooting. For many of us, it’s hard to be in a crowd. It’s hard to attend a music festival, or any large gathering, with the innocence and jubilant naïve feelings that we had before.
1 October is a day that we never will forget. But, it’s a day that also represents the journey to heal our community’s pain through coming together as one.
Mynda Smith, sister of Neysa Tonks, who was killed in the shooting, said a powerful quote that NPR reported initially.
Smith, during a ceremony remembering the victims a year after the massacre, said “The battle is far from over. Wives, husbands, parents, families and friends are without their loved ones. People are still battling physical wounds, while others are battling mental wounds. We all need support and love. We must keep loving. We must keep supporting.”
Hannah Ahlers
Age: 34
City: Beaumont, Calif.
The mother of three young children was with her husband of 17 years when she was killed during the shootout. Her father-in-law, Dave Ahlers, said she was a stay-at-home mom who dedicated herself to her children and her family. “She was beautiful inside and out, and loved life and people,” her brother, Lance Miller, told the Redlands Daily Facts. “She was our sunshine.”
People in her community were organizing a car wash to raise money for her family, and others started an online fundraiser to help.Heather Alvarado
Age: 35
City: Cedar City, Utah
When news spread that a shooting was underway at the music festival, the Cedar City (Utah) Fire Department immediately sent crews to the home of Albert Alvarado, a seven-year member of the department. They knew his wife was at the show. Soon, news came that she was dead.
Heather Alvarado ran an in-home day care center and worked with the department’s Ladies Auxiliary. The couple had three children who would come along when they went on cruises together.
“This is part of our family,” Fire Chief Mike Phillips said. “There’s no question that we are going to feel the soreness and loss from this senseless act of violence from this coward for years to come.”Dorene Anderson
Age: 49
City: Anchorage, Alaska
Anderson was at the concert with her husband when the shooting broke out. And now, their family is trying to recover from her loss.
The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, where her husband, John, is employed, issued a statement from the family.
“She…was the most amazing wife, mother and person this world ever had,” the statement read. “We are so grateful and lucky for the time that we did have with her.
“We are greatly appreciative and want to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers you have been sending us.”Carrie Barnette
Age: 34
City: Riverside, Calif.
Barnette bought a home in Riverside, Calif., last year and was working at the Pacific Wharf Café, a waterfront restaurant in the Disneyland companion park California Adventure. Friends and family described her as an upbeat, happy, animal-loving spirit who owned a basset hound and enjoyed country music.
On Sunday, she took a bullet to the left side of her chest and died with a friend by her side, according to her cousin, Janice Chambers.
Disney CEO Robert Iger, wrote, “We mourn a wonderful member of the Disney family: Carrie Barnette. “Tragic.”
Read more about Carrie Barnette.Jack Beaton
Age: 54
City: Bakersfield, Calif.
Beaton was celebrating his 23rd wedding anniversary with his wife, Laurie, when the gunfire started.
He told his wife to get on the ground and draped his body over hers to protect her. He was hit. He was bleeding profusely. But he had just enough time to tell her he loved her.
“I love you, too. I’ll see you in heaven,” Laurie responded, according to her father, Jerry Cook. The couple had two children.
Cook said Jack’s behavior that night was typical for the 54-year-old roofer — a hands-on guy who made friends easily and had the ability to draw out the best in everyone. “Him covering Laurie to protect her — that’s Jack,” he said.Steve Berger
Age: 44
City: Minnesota
Berger was celebrating his 44th birthday with a trip to Las Vegas when the shooting broke out.
His sister, Christine Moore, said the family struggled to figure out if he was one of the hundreds who were shot. Two days after the shooting, they got the call.
Friends of Berger said he was shot somewhere on his torso and they tried to resuscitate him. But the shooting intensified where they were, forcing them to flee the area.
Moore described her brother as a fun-loving, hard-working father of three who was born and raised in Wauwatosa, Wis. Berger was a financial adviser working in Minnesota.Candice Bowers
Age: 40
City: Garden Grove, Calif.
Bowers was a single mother of three who had recently adopted her youngest child, a 2-year-old girl.
“She stepped in without even blinking and took this infant into her home,” her aunt Michelle Bolks told The Arizona Republic, adding, “She didn’t question it. She didn’t think about it. She just knew she needed to be there.”Bowers had an infectious laugh that came with a wide grin, Bolks remembered. But she could also be tough as nails and was fiercely loyal. Bowers loved country music and family members encouraged her to have a good time at the music festival.
“She was doing what she loved, enjoying a rare couple days away, with her best friend,” Bolks said.Denise Burditus
Age: 50
City: Martinsburg, W.V.
Tony Burditus knew he’d met his match way back in high school. In the decades since, he and Denise Burditus had two children and four grandchildren, with a fifth on the way.
“In 32 years, it grew stronger every day,” Tony Burditus told CNN.
The couple was trying to escape the concert when she was struck. She went down immediately. Someone nearby helped move her to a safer area, a nurse tried to help, and a stranger in a truck drove her to the hospital. But it was too late.Denise Burditus has spent her career in banking. Last year she decided to go back to school. Her husband said she spent all her free time studying, but still made time for their annual, month-long summer trip with the grandchildren — who called her “G-Ma” — and always kept her outgoing spirit. “Denise always had a smile on her face,” he told CNN. “Denise never met a stranger.”
Sandy Casey
Age: 34
City: Redondo Beach, Calif.
Teachers at Manhattan Beach (Calif.) Middle School started their day Monday delivering tragic news to their students: one of their own died in the Las Vegas shooting.
Casey, a Vermont native who moved to California, was a special education teacher at the school for nine years. She was engaged to be married and attended the concert with her fiancee.
“Her parents ask for prayers and privacy for her sisters, co-workers, students and large extended family,” Casey’s family said in a statement shared by her mother’s cousin, Linda O’Leary.
District superintendent Michael Matthews said “We lost a spectacular teacher who devoted her life to helping some of our most needy students.”Andrea Castilla
Age: 28
City: Huntington Beach, Calif.
Andrea Castilla was holding hands with her sister when the bullets began to fly.
According to a GoFundMe page set up by her aunt, Castilla attended the Route 91 Harvest festival for her 28th birthday. She lived in Huntington Beach and worked at Sephora.
Castilla and her sister were holding hands when someone shouted, “Duck!”
She was shot in the head, and her boyfriend, sister and sister’s fiancé carried her out of the crowd, dodging bullets themselves.Denise Cohen
Age: 58
City: Carpinteria, Calif.
When Jeff Rees thinks of his mother, one thing keeps coming to mind: her laugh.
“When she would take me to the movies as a kid, I was just waiting to hear her laugh because it would just crack me up,” he said.
The 58-year-old California woman was in the crowd with her boyfriend, Derrick “Bo” Taylor, when the shooting started. By the time it was over, both were dead. “I feel sorry for all of the people in the world who never got a chance to meet her,” Rees said.Austin Davis
Age: 29
City: Riverside, Calif.
Davis was a pipefitter with UA Local 364 who “had a bright future in our union,” another union member, Daniel Kirkconnell, said.
“Austin was supposed to be home playing softball and he made a last-minute choice to stay in Vegas for a little longer.”
Aubree Hennigan wrote on Facebook that Davis was “the love of my life” and “I will love you until my dying day baby.”
There will be a Home Run Derby in Perris on Sunday in honor of Austin Davis and Tom Day, another victim from Riverside, according to friends’ posts on social media.Thomas Day, Jr.
Age: 54
City: Corona, Calif.
Thomas Day Jr. was a country music fan.
A lifelong Corona resident, he traveled every year to the Coachella Valley for the country music festival Stagecoach with his four adult children.
He played Little League baseball in Corona and later coached a team, and had a Pittsburgh Steelers tattoo on his leg.
Day was attending the Route 91 country music festival in Las Vegas with his children, who are in their 20s and 30s, when he was shot and killed.Christiana Duarte
Age: 22
City: Torrance, Calif.
The 22-year-old was visiting Las Vegas with her parents, but went to the concert without them. Officials found her cell phone, they found her ID, but her family couldn’t locate their daughter.
Two days later, they got the word that she was among those who died.
After graduating from the University of Arizona with a business degree, Duarte moved back home to California and had started working for the Los Angeles Kings.
“She was incredibly driven, passionate about everyone and everything,” said her friend, Maddie Noble.Stacee Etcheber
Age: 50
City: Novato, Calif.
As people around them started falling to the ground, Stacee Etcheber watched as her husband, an officer with the San Francisco Police Department, rushed to help them.
Then they got separated. Then Etcheber got shot.
Ever since, people throughout their hometown of Novato, Calif., have been mourning the loss of Etcheber, a popular hair stylist and mother of two young children. An online fundraiser for her family had raised over $200,000 as of Thursday.
“We’re angry, devastated, frustrated,” said Al Etcheber, Stacee’s brother-in-law, during a new conference in Novato.Brian Fraser
Age: 39
City: La Palma, Calif.
Fraser, a vice president of sales at a Southern California mortgage company, had made his way closer to the front of the stage to see Jason Aldean sing his favorite song when he was fatally shot.
Known as a family man, he was at the concert with a group of 20 family members and friends, none of whom sustained serious injuries, according to The Orange County Register.
He is survived by his wife, four children and parents.
Fraser’s son, Nick Arellano, 25, told The Register that his father loved to hunt, deep-sea fish, snowboard and attend his children’s sporting events. He had recently obtained his private pilot’s license.Keri Galvan
Age: 31
City: Thousand Oaks, Calif.
A mother of three young children, Galvan, 31, attended the festival with her husband, Justin, and some friends as part of a weekend getaway.
They were close to the stage when the shooting started. Galvan was struck in the head and her husband, a Marine who served in Iraq, tried to save her. “He gave her CPR, but she was already gone,” said Galvan’s sister, Lindsey Poole.
Galvan was a server at Mastro’s Steakhouse and had an uncanny ability to remember her customers’ orders or their special occasion. “She’s just constantly making sure everybody’s OK,” Poole said.Dana Gardner
Age: 52
City: Grand Terrace, Calif.
After becoming one of the victims of the massacre in Las Vegas, the outpouring of support for the 52-year-old grandmother has taken on many forms.
Bob Dutton, the San Bernardino County (Calif.) assessor-recorder and county clerk heaped praise on Gardner, a 26-year employee of the county. “Known for her ‘can-do’ attitude and vibrant energy, Dana will be dearly missed,” he wrote in a statement.There was an online fundraiser started by her daughter, who attended the show with Gardner. And on Tuesday, her sisters visited United Blood Services in Las Vegas to thank donors in person for what they were doing for all those injured in the attack.
“She was a wonderful woman,” they told ABC7 News. “Most wonderful mother, grandmother, sister.”Angela Gomez
Age: 20
City: Riverside, Calif.
At a candlelight vigil, Angela Gomez’ father thanked the crowd for coming “to celebrate our angel.”
Family and friends speaking at the vigil at Riverside City College, Calif., where Angie was studying nursing, were surrounded by photos of her — baby pictures, high school yearbook portraits and prom photos.
“The lord works in a strange ways and this is his way,” Angie Gomez’ father, Steve Gomez, told KTLA at the vigil. “It was a calling.”
Angie had spent months planning the trip to Las Vegas with her boyfriend Ethan Sanchez, whom she met in high school, according to KTLA.
“She was a daughter, she was a sister, she was my life,” Sanchez said at the vigil.Rocio Guillen Rocha
Age: 40
City: Eastvale, Calif.
Guillen Rocha was standing beside the man she was supposed to marry when she was shot at the music festival.
According to a GoFundMe page set up by a cousin, Guillen Rocha had four children, the youngest of whom was one month old.
Guillen Rocha grew up in Anaheim and graduated from Katella High School. She worked at Disneyland as a young adult, according to friends’ posts on social media.
According to her cousin’s GoFundMe page, “Her greatest accomplishment was being a mother as she would always say. She was a supermom, always working hard and juggling everything to be the best mom to her 4 children.”Charleston Hartfield
Age: 34
City: Las Vegas
On a trip to visit victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting, President Donald Trump honored Hartfield, a military veterans and Las Vegas police officer who was off duty at the concert but started escorting people out of the venue when the shooting began.
“Officer Hartfield was a proud veteran, a devoted husband and loving father,” Trump said. “His death is a tragic loss for this police force, for this city and for our great nation.”
Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, said he’d known Hartfield for seven years and that the officer liked to joke around with his colleagues.
“People would say he was the funniest guy.”Chris Hazencomb
Age: 44
City: Camarillo, Calif.
As the clock approached 11 a.m. on Monday morning, Maryanne Hazencomb stood in a Las Vegas hospital room and gave the order to disconnect the ventilator that was keeping her son alive.
Chris Hazencomb had shielded his best friend’s wife after the shooting started. The graduate of Thousand Oaks High School, a sports junkie and country music fan, soon became the 58th victim in the shooting.His final act, using his 6-foot-5 body to protect his friend’s wife, perfectly summarized how he lived his life, his mother said. She called him a constant helper, whether that meant doing a dirty job none of his coworkers at the Walmart Neighborhood Market wanted to do, or rescuing a less than social cat from the neighbor’s roof.
“You don’t expect your kid to go before you go,” she said. “He was good to everybody. He’d go out on the limb for everybody.”Jennifer Topaz Irvine
Age: 42
City: San Diego
As the music blared, Irvine was holding hands with her friends, singing and dancing along when the bullet struck her.
Kyle Kraska, a longtime friend, said those final moments encapsulated who Irvine was, an outgoing, fun-loving soul who was always surrounded by friends. “She was an adventurous person, a very social, loving, caring, inclusive person,” he said.
Irvine, a graduate of California Western School of Law, opened her own family law and criminal defense firm in 2011 and was a television commentator on criminal trials. But she also led a busy life outside of work, earning a black belt in taekwondo, doing yoga and snowboarding.
Before she died, Kraska said she already had her eyes set on her next challenge: skydiving.Teresa Nicol Kimura
Age: 38
City: Placentia, Calif.
Teresa Kimura was known by her middle name, Nicol, and was known for her huge heart and infectious laugh, friends said.
Kimura attended the Route 91 Harvest festival with six friends, from Orange County, Calif. The group scattered after the shooting started, and all but Kimura were reunited in the ensuing hours, said Ryan Miller, a pastor and one of Kimura’s friends who also attended the concert.
“She made you jealous of how much she loved life,” Miller wrote on a GoFundMe page. “And if you didn’t know her, you missed out on a better life than the one you have.”Jessica Klymchuk
Age: 34
City: Valleyview, Alberta, Canada
Klymchuk was that person who did a little bit of everything and kept the wheels at her school turning forward.
The mother of four was an educational assistant at St. Stephen’s School in Valleyview, Alberta, Canada, a town of roughly 2,000 people.
She served as a school librarian and bus driver and connected with elementary school students in a way few could, attendees at a vigil said.
Klymchuk got engaged in April to her boyfriend, Brent Irla, according to a Facebook status update.
“Since meeting Brent my world has changed, his smile is something I can’t live without and his laugh is contagious,” Klymchuk wrote in a comment responding to the announcement.Carly Kreibaum
Age: 33
City: Sutherland, Iowa
The electronic welcome sign for tiny Sutherland, Iowa, scrolled a new, painful message Wednesday.
“RIP Carly.”
Kreibaum, 33, was remembered as a well-liked mother of two young children who married Chris Kreibaum. The couple lived on a farm.
Residents of the small farming town were stunned that one of their own died in the Las Vegas massacre.
“There’s 600 people in this town. And there were 22,000 people at that concert,” said Dan Wetherell, a local librarian and a cook at the Mugshots Bar & Grill.Rhonda LeRocque
Age: 42
City: Tewksbury, Mass.
At first, Jason LeRocque thought his wife was ducking to avoid the gunfire. It turned out she was hit.
Rhonda LeRocque was a devout Jehovah’s Witness who met her husband at church and constantly volunteered for humanitarian missions, including rebuilding homes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
“She prayed on everything,” her mother Priscilla Champagne told the Boston Globe. “Very God-oriented. I’m sure that Jehovah God is upset that one of his beautiful, beautiful people is no longer in this world.”
The couple was on a family vacation with their 6-year-old son. After the country music festival, they were planning to go to Disneyland.Victor Link
Age: 55
City: Orange County, Calif.
Link, a mortgage broker, was remembered by his son as a strong role model.
“I love you so much Dad,” Christian Link wrote on Facebook. “Thank you so much for adopting me. Thank you so much for being the best dad any one son could ever have. I could type for hours saying how great of a man you were and how everyone loves you so so much.”Link was attending the music festival with his fiancée, Lynne Gonzales, according to media reports. His friend and colleague, Christopher Fenoglio, offered a tribute to him on Facebook.
“Victor carried with him a deep passion for life; whether he was sharing stories of his weekend and the past times he’d shared with Lynne and his family, or sharing how excited he was for the upcoming weekend and the plans that ensued,” he wrote.
“He loved to share his expertise on craft beers and good tequila,” he added. His love of music encompassed most genres, and it was never any surprise when he stumped the majority of the office with his vast trivia knowledge.”Jordan McIldoon
Age: 23
City: Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada
Jordan McIldoon was days away from turning 24 years old, and he was a month shy of finishing his heavy-duty mechanic apprenticeship.
Journeying to Las Vegas from his home in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, he had a love of the outdoors “born within him,” according to his parents, Alan and Angela McIldoon.
“From a young age, he was fearless,” his parents wrote in a statement to the media. “From finding him perched on the roof of the barn at age 2 or having him leap into the deep end of the lake before he could swim, he was always on the go.”
His girlfriend, Amber Vanderpol, was equally distraught.
“He taught me how to love and he taught me how to be a good person,” she told the Global News. “He was the love of my life.”Kelsey Meadows
Age: 28
City: Taft, Calif.
Meadows was a substitute teacher at Taft Union High School in Taft, California, where she graduated in 2007.
Taft Union High School principal Mary Alice Finn said she “was smart, compassionate and kind. She had a sweet spirit and a love for children.”
The high school established a memorial scholarship fund in her honor.
History Professor Lori Clune, who met Meadows during her time as a student at Fresno State University, said Meadows was “a gifted teacher who demonstrated a skill and passion for her chosen profession.”Calla-Marie Medig
Age: 28
City: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Growing up in the small Canadian town of Jasper, Alberta, Calla Medig loved her country music.
She loved it so much she put a job promotion on hold so she could attend the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert in Las Vegas with her roommate.
“She was promoted the day before she left for Vegas,” said Scott Collingwood, acting general manager at Moxie’s Grill and Bar in the West Edmonton Mall, where Medig worked.
“She was well respected and well loved. When we announced she was to become a manager, people were hooting and hollering.”James "Sonny" Melton
Age: 29
City: Big Sandy, Tenn.
When the bullets started raining down on the crowd, Melton’s first reaction was to protect his wife.
“He saved my life,” Heather Melton said. “He grabbed me from behind and started running when I felt him get shot in the back.”
Melton was a registered nurse at Henry County Medical Center in Paris, Tenn. His wife is an orthopedic surgeon there. The couple married in June 2016.
Heather Melton wrote to USA TODAY, “I want everyone to know what a kind hearted loving man he was but at this point I can barely breathe.”Patricia Mestas
Age: 67
City: Menifee, Calif.
Mestas was the oldest person to die, but family members always will remember her for being young at heart.
A lover of country music, Mestas traveled to the music festival to see one of her favorite musicians, Jason Aldean. She was always eager to make the most of a moment, Tom Smith, Mestas’ cousin, said in an interview with USA TODAY.“If there weren’t people, if there wasn’t music, if there wasn’t laughter, she would find it,” Smith said. “Or she would do her bestat to make it.”
Mestas used to work as a deli manager at a convenience store in Corona, Calif. More recently, she spent time with her family, particularly the youngest ones.
She had three children, eight grandchildren and a great-grandchild.Austin Meyer
Age: 24
City: Reno, Nev.
Meyer was a 2011 graduate of Seaside High School in Monterey, Calif., and had recently move from Marina, Calif., to Reno to attend Truckee Meadows Community College.
“Austin was a joy to be around. He always had a smile on his face, was (witty) and was always making people laugh. He was passionate about cars, loved sports, basketball in particular, and his favorite team (was) the Boston Celtics,” Veronica Meyer, Austin’s sister, told KSBW-8, an NBC affiliate in Salinas, Calif.
She said Meyer dreamed of opening an auto repair shop after graduation, in addition to looking forward to getting married and starting a family.Adrian Murfitt
Age: 35
City: Anchorage
For Adrian Murfitt, the country music festival was a group celebration after a successful fishing season off the Alaskan coast.
His sister, Shannon Gothard, said Murfitt was every bit the Anchorage native — he played hockey “since he was just a little tot” and would spend months at sea as a commercial fisherman. Gothard said her brother was even talking about going in with a friend to buy their own boat.
“He was my brother, so of course I thought he was an arrogant little cuss,” she said, struggling to laugh. “But only I can say that cause he’s my brother. He had this big, jovial, goofy laugh. He’d always try to do the right thing. He had a big heart.”Rachael Parker
Age: 33
City: Manhattan Beach, Calif.
The first person anybody walking into the Manhattan Beach (Calif.) Police Department saw was Rachael Parker, a civilian employee of the department who served as a records technician and the front desk clerk.
“She was one of the faces of the department,” said Kristie Colombo, the department’s community affairs officer. “She was always funny and smart and bubbly and always had a smile on her face.”
Parker was attending the music festival with three other department employees. One of them was on off-duty police officer who was also shot, but Colombo said he was expected to recover.Jenny Parks
Age: 36
City: Lancaster, Calif.
Jenny Parks, an energetic kindergarten teacher and mother of two, was in her third year of teaching at Anaverde Hills Elementary School in Palmdale, Calif.
Parks was at the concert with her husband, who suffered injuries to his arm and hand. Parks didn’t make it.
Those who knew her praised her passion and the energy she brought to the classroom.“She was so proud to be a teacher and her spirit was something to behold,” school officials said in a statement. “The students who were instructed by her knew what it was to love learning as Jenny instilled in them a sense of wonder, curiosity and excitement.
“She will be sorely missed from our lives.”Carrie Parsons
Age: 31
City: Bainbridge Island, Wash.
Parsons was a 2008 Arizona State University graduate and Seattle-area resident who had recently gotten engaged in Hawaii.
“She would always say ‘live, laugh, love,’ and she did that,” Laura Cooper, her childhood friend, told Seattle TV’s KOMO News.
Parsons was from Bainbridge Island, which is separated from Seattle by a bay. Her LinkedIn profile said she had worked at the staffing firm Ajilon since 2014, that her ASU degree was in ceramics and that she played intramural softball.Lisa Patterson
Age: 46
City: Lomita, Calif.
Religion and participation in the Catholic church defined Patterson, along with her experience coaching youth sports, said long-time friend Dennis Kim.
He described Patterson and her husband, Robert, as beloved fixtures in the community just south of Los Angeles. She handled the books for the family’s hardwood flooring business.
One her children, Amber, is a special education major at Northern Arizona University. Her husband, who wasn’t at the concert, stopped by a makeshift memorial in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas on Tuesday and spoke with a local television crew.
“I can’t believe she’s gone,” he told FOX5. “Once I didn’t hear from her for over a day, then I knew that something very bad had happened.”John Phippen
Age: 56
City: Santa Clarita, Calif.
John Phippen, a Cailfornia home remodeler and dune-buggy enthusiast, died while shielding a stranger, his son Travis Phippen told NBC’s Today show.
Phippen and Travis, 24, were attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas together Sunday when the shooting began. Phippen placed his body over a girl to shield her and was shot, Travis recounted, struggling through his tears.
His son, an emergency medical technician, came to Phippen’s aid, but it was too late. Travis watched his father die in his arms and was struck in the arm himself.
Phippen “gave his life for someone he didn’t even know,” Travis said. “He wanted everybody to know how much he loved them.”Melissa Ramirez
Age: 26
City: Los Angeles, Calif.
Ramirez grew up in the Antelope Valley of California, north of Los Angeles, and loved to surround herself with her extended family.
She would routinely make trips home over weekends while in school, the New York Times reported.
The daughter of Mexican immigrants who became U.S. citizens, Ramirez graduated from California State University-Bakersfield in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She worked at a Southern California car-insurance company.
“She always helped her parents, and just wanted to be there,” her cousin, Fabiola Farnetti, told the Times.Jordyn Rivera
Age: 21
City: La Verne, Calif.
“I’m just in disbelief that someone so sweet and genuine that I got the privilege of knowing is now no longer here,” Jasmine Orozco said of her college friend.
Rivera grew up in La Verne and graduated from Bonita High School in 2014.
She was in her fourth year of California State University, San Bernardino’s Health Care Management program, according to the university.
She studied abroad in London last summer, and her Facebook profile picture remains a snapshot of her outside Stonehenge, both hands forming coyotes, CSUSB’s mascot.Quinton Robbins
Age: 20
City: Henderson, Nev.
Robbins was an avid fisherman and snowboarder who spent his final moments with his sister, according to social media posts.
“He was the most kind and loving soul,” his aunt, Kilee Wells Sanders, wrote on Facebook. “Everyone who met him loved him … He was truly an amazing person.”
Robbins studied at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and worked in recreation for the city of Henderson.
His sister, Skylar Robbins, wrote on Twitter, “Laying next to you in the hospital bed all night was the hardest thing I’ve gone through, but you made me feel so at peace and I know you are with me.”Cameron Robinson
Age: 28
City: St. George, Utah
Cameron Robinson lived in St. George but worked for the city of Las Vegas as a legal records specialist, according to the state’s online transparency website.
Robinson’s sister, Meghan Ervin, confirmed that her brother was among the victims.
Friends have remembered him on a GoFundMe.com page, which had raised over $23,000 by Wednesday to pay for funeral costs and help his family.
“He loved to cook, entertain, run marathons, travel, go camping, boating, and the outdoors in general and above all surround himself with those he loved and others,” the page read. “He is an amazing example to all and brought so much light to those he came in contact with.”Tara Roe
Age: 34
City: Alberta, Canada
A Canadian mother of two young boys who worked as an educational assistant and a model was attending the concert with her husband. After initially being listed as missing, officials confirmed that Roe, 34, was among the dead.
The Foothills School Division in High River, Alberta, where Smith worked has received an outpouring of support as the district deals with sadness, shock and grief, Superintendent John Bailey said.
Sophia Models International, where Roe worked for 10 years, also lamented the loss of her “friendly face” and “caring spirit.”
“She was a wonderful mother and our family is going to miss her dearly,” Val Rodgers, Roe’s aunt, told the Canadian Press.Lisa Romero-Muniz
Age: 48
City: Gallup, N.M.
Romero-Muniz spent all of her time around children.
She had children and four grandchildren. She worked as a counselor at elementary, middle-school and high-school levels for Gallup-McKinley County Schools.
Her colleagues and her students, flooded social media with glowing tributes to her.
District superintendent Mike Hyatt said she, “was an incredible loving and sincere friend, mentor and advocate for students in many of our schools.”Chris Roybal
Age: 28
City: Aurora, Colo.
Navy veteran Christopher Roybal survived combat in Afghanistan and had recently moved with his wife to Colorado for a new job before he was killed in Sunday’s attack.
Roybal, 28, served from 2007 to 2012, according to his public service record. He was deployed to Afghanistan from July 2011 to May 2012 as part of a military working dog team, according to the U.S. Navy.
His co-worker, Robert Alexander of Colorado Springs, told the Associated Press that Roybal was always upbeat at the gym where he worked in Colorado.
“Chris had that attraction power,” he said. “He had that ability to make people want to hang around him and his smile was infectious. He had just great energy, full of enthusiasm for life, and really had a purpose.”Brett Schwanbeck
Age: 61
City: Bullhead City, Ariz.
Schwanbeck, a retired truck driver and grandfather, was remembered by relatives this week as an avid outdoorsman always willing to help a family member in need.
His fiancee, Anna Orozco, hid in a dumpster until the gunfire stopped, niece Carla Van Hoosen reported on a GoFundMe page raising money for his immediate family.
Schwanbeck was carried by bystanders to an ambulance, and he was hospitalized at Sunrise Medical Center in Las Vegas. He died of his injuries Tuesday, according to his niece.
In addition to Orozco, Schwanbeck is survived by three children and five grandchildren.Bailey Schweitzer
Age: 20
City: Bakersfield, Calif.
Schweitzer was a former high-school cheerleader and a receptionist with a smile that could light up a room, her loved ones recalled.
Facebook photos show her hugging family, posing as a bridesmaid, throwing her pompoms in the air and goofing around at her family’s race track, the Bakersfield Speedway in Bakersfield, Calif.
She was with her mom, Crissy Schweitzer, at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. She was most excited to hear Luke Combs play, co-worker Katelynn Cleveland told the Californian. During another set, when Cleveland’s favorite song came on, Schweitzer called and broadcast it to her friend.Laura Shipp
Age: 50
City: Las Vegas
Shipp moved to Las Vegas five years ago to be closer to her son, Corey, a 23-year-old Marine who she had raised on her own.
The two were separated for a moment during the concert when the shooting broke out. Her brother, Steve Shipp, rushed to Las Vegas and ran from hospital to hospital to find her. But they eventually got the call that she had died.
Steve Shipp was grieving, but was more concerned over Shipp’s son, who is serving in a unit based in Las Vegas.
“He just lost the most important person in his life,” he said. “She was his world and he was hers.”Erick Silva
Age: 21
City: Las Vegas
Erick Silva was working Jason Aldean’s set at the Route 91 Harvest Festival as a security guard, right in front of the stage, inside a barricade. When the shooting started, the 21-year-old helped concertgoers over the barricade so they could escape through a nearby exit.
Then he was shot.
Silva, a Las Vegas resident and three-year employee of Contemporary Services Corporation (CSC) Nevada, was the “epitome of integrity,” according to CSC vice president Jay Purves.
“He was always the first one there and the last one to leave and went above and beyond what we ever asked of him,” Purves said.
In an interview with KTNV, Silva’s mother wept, saying her son had “a bright future” and that she was still expecting him to walk into the room and say her name.Susan Smith
Age: 53
City: Simi Valley, Calif.
Within hours of learning about the shooting, visitors started dropping off flowers outside Vista Elementary School, where Susan Smith was a popular office manager.
“She’s the hub…really the heart of the school,” said Jake Finch, a spokesperson for the Simi Valley Unified School District. “She had a great sense of humor. She’s patient and kind.”
Smith, an ardent country music fan who was married with two adult children, attended the music festival with two friends from the school district. Lesley Prince, a father of a Vista Elementary student, added flowers to a growing memorial to Smith.
“She was just such a sweet person,” Prince said with tears welling in his eyes. “She’s the one who told me my daughter was accepted here.”Brennan Stewart
Age: 30
City: Las Vegas
Friends and family of Stewart described him as a rowdy, fun-loving singer who was always the life of the party. But when the gunfire started, another side of Stewart came out.
“Brennan was the kind of guy who always put others before himself, including up to the moment he lost his life,” read a family statement. “Brennan shielded his girlfriend and helped others to safety.”
The amateur country-music songwriter has been the focus of a wide variety of tributes. Many people are rewatching his YouTube videos, including his rendition of “You Should Be Here” by Cole Swindell. Some are wearing cowboy boots in his honor. Others are planning a karaoke night to sing songs and collect donations for his large, extended family.
For the family of Stewart, who worked for a custom-home builder in Las Vegas, that focus on the music is a perfect way to honor him. “If country music ever disappeared, I feel like I would too,” he once wrote.Derrick “Bo” Taylor
Age: 56
City: Oxnard, Calif.
The 29-year veteran of the Nevada Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation attended the concert with his girlfriend, Denise Cohen. By the time the chaos was over, both were dead.
Taylor was a lieutenant and the commander of the state’s conservation center, which houses inmates who fight wildfires.
His supervisor, Capt. Timothy Ellis, called Taylor an “outstanding” officer. “He ran an absolutely great camp,” Ellisa said.
Taylor was survived by two adult sons. He had been scheduled to return to work Tuesday, Ellis said.Neysa Tonks
Age: 46
City: Las Vegas
Tonks was a vivacious single mother of three who relished life, her 14-year-old son recalled.
“She lived life like it was her last each day,” Greysen Tonks told CNN. “And she didn’t care what anybody thinks.”
Technologent, the technology company for whom Tonks worked, established a GoFundMe page on behalf of Tonks’ family and three boys, Kaden, Braxton and Greysen. On Thursday, it had raised nearly $189,000.
She urged her friends and family to be positive, using the catchphrase “Don’t be a hater,” her mother Debbie Davis told CNN.
“Even if you said you hated broccoli, she said, ‘Don’t be a hater,'” Davis said. “She was just a wonderful person with a huge light that we will not let be dimmed.”Michelle Vo
Age: 32
City: Los Angeles
Vo had an “independent, strong personality” and loved traveling the world, even traveling to Europe alone a few years ago, her brother-in-law Paul Warren said. The daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, she loved the U.S. and “took full advantage of the freedoms she was given.”
As a successful and ambitious life-insurance agent, Vo had prepared plans for what should happen in the event of her own death.
“She had this fondness for beaches and she was very precise in saying, if she ever passed away, for her ashes to be spread on different beaches around the world,” Warren said. “That’s where she wanted to be so that’s what we will be doing.”Kurt von Tillow
Age: 55
City: Cameron Park, Calif.
Attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas had become a tradition for the von Tillow family – this year Kurt attended with his wife, daughter, son-in-law, sister and niece. Only his son, who had recently moved to Ohio for a new job, was missing.
Von Tillow was known at his country club for his patriotism, often wearing a hat emblazoned with “U.S.A.” and an American flag-patterned shirt, and lavishly decorating his golf cart with flags on the Fourth of July. He loved golf, NASCAR, the Golden State Warriors and the San Francisco Giants, but more than anything he loved his family.
“He love, love, loved his grandkids,” close friend and neighbor Brent Hitchings said. “They call him Paw Paw.”Bill Wolfe
Age: 42
City: Shippensburg, Pa.
At first, Bill Wolfe was reported missing after he was separated from his wife in the chaotic aftermath of the shooting. His relatives flew to Las Vegas to find him, and the people of his hometown of Shippensburg, Penn., held a prayer vigil at a local sports stadium hoping they would get good news.
By Tuesday night, their worst fears were realized.
The Shippensburg Police Department confirmed that Wolfe, a Pennsylvania Little League coach, was among the victims.
Wolfe’s aunt Dora Wolfe said the outpouring of support from the community has helped the family deal with their loss.
“It’s just so senseless,” she said of the shooting. “Such a waste.”Samanta Arjune
Age: 49
City: Las Vegas
Samanta Arjune was a vivacious office administrator, who became the 60th victim that died from complications of the gunshot wound that she sustained in the 2017 attack. Arjune died in 2020, three years after the 1 October shooting. In Arjune’s GoFundMe page, it states, “Sam’s older brother Malcolm shielded her from the rain of bullets, and being trampled.”
Arjune was the office administrator for Exhibit City News, a local publication in the city.
Kimberly Gervais
Age: 57
City: San Bernardino County, Calif.
The Review-Journal said that even when Kimberly Gervais became paralyzed after a bullet lodged into her body, Gervais’ daughter said that Kim showed “superhuman strength.” Kimberly Gervais is a mother of two daughters, a country music lover and owned a small business.
