Route 91 ‘Never Gets Easier,’ 7 Years Later
On Tuesday (Oct. 1), Jason Aldean marked the seventh anniversary of the mass shooting that occurred at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas in 2017.
“7 years later and this day never gets easier,” the singer writes. “Sending love out to everybody in the Route 91 family today.”
He also shared a photo of the original lineup poster issued for the 2017 festival, with Eric Church, Sam Hunt and himself listed at the top of the bill as the event’s headliners.
Aldean was the one onstage — performing his headlining set on the final night of the three-day event — when gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd from his 32nd-floor suite at the nearby Mandalay Bay Hotel.
Fifty-eight people died at the scene, and in the months that followed, two more died from injuries sustained in the shooting. That brought the death toll of the Route 91 massacre to 60, making it the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history — a title it still retains today. Approximately 867 people were injured.
When authorities arrived at Paddock’s room, they discovered that he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
To mark the seventh anniversary of the tragedy, Aldean’s wife Brittany — who was also on-site when the shooting occurred, and pregnant with the couple’s now-6-year-old son Memphis — shared a snapshot of the Vegas Route 91 memorial site on her Instagram Stories.
Read More: Las Vegas Gets a Permanent Route 91 Memorial
According to Las Vegas CBS affiliate 8 News Now, the city also marked the seven-year anniversary of the massacre with an exhibit called “Remembering 1 October” in the Clark County Government Center. The exhibit features a selection of items and mementos left at memorial locations in the city, including stuffed animals, cowboy hats, letters and banners.
The exhibit includes the “Angels of Love” display, which includes a large stained-glass angel for each victim who died in the shooting, and hundreds of smaller angels to represent those who were injured.
These Are the Names and Faces of the Victims of the Las Vegas Shooting:
