Officials share design plans for Las Vegas Strip mass shooting memorial

LAS VEGAS — A concept design was chosen Wednesday during a committee meeting in Clark County, Nevada, that will be created to honor the 58 victims who were killed in October 2017 in the shooting that happened during the Route 91 Music Festival.

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Clark County on Facebook said that its 1 October Memorial Committee will recommend a design concept by JCJ Architecture for a memorial project to honor the victims of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

The memorial will be a permanent memorial to honor the 58 victims who were killed when a gunman opened fire from a suite in the Mandalay Bay hotel, according to The Associated Press. The gunman targeted people at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

The shooting that night was the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history, according to the AP.

“I will not lie that this has been a simple process, because it hasn’t,” committee member Mynda Smith said, according to the AP. “But at the end of the day, I know this will become something of beauty and healing and love.” Smith’s sister, Neysa Tonks, 46, was killed in the shooting.

Karessa Royce, another committee member was among those injured in the shooting, the AP reported. She was a junior at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas when the shooting happened.

“When I woke up in the hospital in 2017 the day after the shooting, I never could’ve imagined the journey we’d be on together,” Royce said, according to the AP. “This was a job that was far bigger than those of us sitting up here.”

The 1 October Memorial Committee began the planning process three years ago, according to the AP. The committee is excepted to submit a full recommendation as well as an alternate design in Sept. to the Clark County Commission.

The proposed design will be in the shape of an infinity symbol near where the festival was held, according to the AP. It will have 22,000 lights for the number of people attending the festival that night. It will include a garden path with a 58-foot glass tower with 58 candles that will have the name and photo of a victim on it.

The alternate design would have 15 large horse statues, the AP reported. Those 15 horses represent the home states and countries of the victims. It would also include two smaller horses to honor the dozens of children who lost their parents that night.

Clark County officials said the memorial will be built on two donated acres of land on the Las Vegas Strip where the shooting happened.

“The proposed Las Vegas Memorial is to honor the 58 victims, support their families and survivors, and acknowledge all the emergency responders who assisted those in need on that fateful night. The memorial will serve as a place for individuals to reflect, grieve, and remember those who lost their lives. It will be a place to provide solace and healing for the community while also serving as a reminder of the importance of promoting peace, unity, and the prevention of violence. It will become a symbol of how a community came together to commemorate those who have been lost, as a gathering place for people to share their stories and experiences and as a place for support and connection with others who have been similarly affected,” the county said on its website.