Woman wounded in Las Vegas mass shooting dies in California
A Southern California woman has died more than two years after she was paralyzed in the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting on the Las Vegas Strip — the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Kimberly Gervais of Mira Loma, California, died Friday evening at the Redlands Community Hospital in Southern California, according to the coroner’s division of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. She was 57.
The Sheriff’s Department said Monday that Gervais had been recovering from her spinal injuries at a nursing facility in Redlands prior to her death. Her autopsy had not been scheduled as of Monday afternoon.
Gervais was left quadriplegic from a bullet that had been lodged in her spine during the mass shooting on Oct. 1, 2017, according to a GoFundMe account created shortly after the attack by Gervais’ daughter, Amber Manka.
The shooting happened on the final night of Route 91, a three-day country music festival on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard South and Mandalay Bay Road.
Gunfire rained down on the festival grounds from a 32nd-floor Mandalay Bay corner suite, killing 58 and wounding hundreds more.
The last victim died on Oct. 3, 2017, according to redacted Clark County coroner’s office autopsy reports.
In a brief phone call with the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said he was out of town and could not immediately comment on Gervais’ death, which had not been added to the Metropolitan Police Department’s official death toll as of Monday.
Police officials in Las Vegas and San Bernardino County did not release further details Monday, but Jeff Lewison, the supervising deputy coroner for the Sheriff’s Department, told the Review-Journal that the agencies have been in contact about Gervais’ death.
Neither Metro nor the FBI could determine a motive for the shooting. The FBI referred questions on Monday to Metro.
Meanwhile, according to spokesman Jace Radke, city officials on Monday were discussing a 59th tree to be planted in Gervais’ honor at the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, which sprang up in downtown Las Vegas near South Casino Center Boulevard and Coolidge Avenue in the days after the shooting.
The garden today features 58 trees — one for each victim — and a remembrance wall with photos and other mementos.
“That garden has grown into a place for everyone in the city to go to find peace and to grieve or to work through whatever they’re working through,” Radke said Monday. “Obviously the events of Oct. 1 arced the building of it, but it really has been and always is for anyone in need of finding peace.”
Manka declined to comment Monday but, in a Facebook message to the Review-Journal, said her mom was an “amazing woman.”
Gervais was preceded in death by her husband, who died in 2003, according to Manka.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
Resources
The Vegas Strong Resiliency Center will continue to support survivors in their healing process by providing free resources and support to anyone affected by the Oct. 1, 2017, tragedy — including survivors, family members of victims, first responders, and those who witnessed the incident or tried to assist victims.
Services include victim advocacy and support; legal consultations for civil legal matters such as debt collection, foreclosure, insurance claims and family law issues; and counseling and spiritual care referrals. The center can be reached by phone at 702-455-2433 or 833-299-2433, online at www.vegasstrongrc.org or by email at vegasstrongresiliencycenter@clarkcountynv.gov.
