Golden Knights Cancel Fan Fest In Light Of Sunday’s Shooting Tragedy
By ALAN SNEL
These are difficult times for the Las Vegas community after a gunman used automatic rifle fire from his Mandalay Bay hotel-casino 32nd level room to shoot and kill 59 innocent country music fans at a concert at an outdoor festival on the Strip Sunday night.
With Las Vegas coping the best it can with this shooting tragedy, which also involved more than 500 injuries, the Vegas Golden Knights have cancelled a Fan Fest that was scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m. near The D Las Vegas hotel-casino at the Fremont Street Experience.
The Golden Knights have reported that all players and staff are accounted for and safe.
“However, we know that this is not the case for many other organizations in our city. Our hearts are with those affected and we will be doing what we can to support the victims, their families and those grieving,” the Golden Knights said in a release.
Golden Knights players will be making appearances in the community to show support for first responders and victims beginning Tuesday. Details of the appearances will be confirmed Tuesday.
The Vegas Golden Knights Foundation, the team’s non-profit arm, will be making donations for relief efforts.
Specifics of the donation along with additional fundraising, events, in-arena recognition, player involvement and awareness initiatives will be announced at a later date, the team said.
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LVSportsBiz.com also posted this statement on Facebook about the mass killings:
“Mass casualty event.” “The violent incident.” Somehow, these words fail to explain the pain, hurt, anger and depth of what happened at 10:08 p.m. Sunday.
On Sunday night, the continuous sickening sound of pop-pop-pop gunfire was heard on the south end of the Strip and those bullets killed at least 58 people at an outdoor country music concert. I had left a hockey arena a mile away an hour before a 64-year-old Mesquite, NV man used an automatic weapon from his 32nd floor room at Mandalay Bay Hotel-casino to shoot down on 22,000 at an outdoor festival site on the Strip.
Now broadcasters lead today’s news with the following words: “Deadliest mass shooting in our nation’s history.” Our beautiful city and section of southern Nevada is now at the top of this list. Orlando. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Fort Hood. Columbine.
It’s heartbreaking, and the shock, sadness and grief are palpable here. More than 50 sets of grieving families. Another 515 were injured. The dead included an off-duty Metro police officer.
Part of the sickening feeling is there is a sense we Americans are powerless to stop our own from killing so many of our own. The apparent inevitability and continuation of these brutal slaughters is part of my sadness.
The light this morning is the legions of police officers, EMTs, doctors, nurses and blood donors who responded with courage and generosity. Las Vegas will rally.
Contact LVSportsBiz.com founder/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com
