Las Vegas police salute officer killed in mass shooting – VIDEO
Charleston Hartfield, an off-duty Las Vegas police officer and recently published author of a memoir about life on the force, was killed Sunday night in the mass shooting on the Strip.
Hartfield, a 34-year-old military veteran known as Charles, Chucky or “ChuckyHart,” also coached youth football, said Troy Rhett, who told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the two had known each other for about eight years.
Rhett said he sent Hartfield a text message late Sunday night, “hoping he would text me back.”
“I figured he was probably busy helping others,” Rhett said. “I don’t know a better man than Charles. They say it’s always the good ones we lose early. There’s no truer statement than that with Charles. … Our hearts have just been very heavy since hearing the news.”
Hartfield posted an image of the Route 91 country music festival on his Facebook page Sunday evening, hours before a gunman shot into the concert crowd, killing at least 59 people. Another friend, Stan King, posted “RIP Brother” on Hartfield’s page Monday morning.
