Names of Las Vegas shooting victims read on 8th anniversary

Remembrance ceremonies for the victims of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting in Las Vegas continued on Wednesday night — the eighth anniversary of the massacre.

The names of the 58 people who died the night of the shooting at a music festival on the Strip and in the immediate aftermath were read aloud in a ceremony at the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, at 1015 South Casino Center Boulevard.

As it does every year, the reading and candle-lighting took about 15 minutes. Some of the people remembered were from as far away as Alaska, Iowa and Canada. Most were from the Las Vegas Valley or California.

The ceremony started at 10:05 p.m., which is approximately the time that the gunfire began.

For Andrew Mills, 37, of Las Vegas, it was the second ceremony he attended on the anniversary. The first was the annual sunrise ceremony that took place Wednesday morning at the Clark County Government Center.

Mills’ friend Erick Silva, 21, of Las Vegas was one of the victims.

“I come to support everybody, not just my friend’s family,” Mills said. “I know my friend died helping others that night, so that’s how I remember him.”

Several dozen people attended Wednesday night’s ceremony on a calm, clear night in downtown Las Vegas.

While 58 died initially at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert, that number would increase to 60 after the deaths of two women from complications resulting from their gunshot wounds in November 2019 and May 2020.

In 2020, then Sheriff Joe Lombardo announced that the shooting’s official death toll would be 60, though the city continues to recognize 58 names officially.

Las Vegas Mayor Pro Tem Brian Knudsen, who spoke at the ceremony, said afterward that the Community Healing Garden is there to remember everyone lost because of the shooting.

“An entire community suffered, and I would say an entire nation suffered, because of this tragedy,” Knudsen said. “Fifty-eight died that night and two additional people passed away due to complications. This was the worst mass shooting incident in the country’s history. I don’t know if I would get caught up on the technicality of 58 versus 60.”

Along with Las Vegas Communications Director David Riggleman, Knudsen, who serves as the city councilman for Ward 1, read the names of the victims.

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.