Sunrise ceremony honors Las Vegas shooting victims

In the seven years since Michael Duarte lost his sister Christiana, his best friend, at the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting, he’s learned some things about loss, trauma and the challenge of moving on with life.

“It’s OK to not be OK,” he said. “Your life isn’t the same and it shouldn’t be the same.”

“You will question God, you will hate God, you will be angry and confused and won’t understand what direction to move in.”

“All your friends and family will go on with their everyday routine. And life isn’t passing you by. This is your new norm. Don’t compare your life to somebody else’s. Baby steps go a long way. Ask for help.”

Duarte, 30, of Franklin, Tennessee, and Huntington Beach, California, was one of the speakers at this year’s sunrise ceremony, a gathering at the Clark County government complex organized by the county and the Metropolitan Police Department.

It’s a way to remember the lives lost as a result of the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting — the worst in modern U.S. history — where a gunman killed 60 people and injured hundreds.

“October 1st is now a day we come together with grief, loss, brokenness and begin to heal like it happened all over again,” said Duarte. “Grief is all the love that we cannot give. It’s heavy.”

But in the years since the shooting, survivors have bonded and built a community. The ceremony was also an opportunity for them to come together.

Haunting and healing

At the ceremony, a multiagency honor guard presented the colors, Duarte and Metro’s chaplain said prayers and a band called Thrillbilly Deluxe performed the national anthem and “Amazing Grace.” Band member Tony Parker is a survivor of the shooting.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the shooting has “haunted” him because of the lives first responders could not save.

“But out of darkness comes great hope, great change and, I pray, eventually great peace,” he said.

The trauma spurred the creation of Metro’s wellness bureau, which helps first responders heal, he said.

McMahill called the construction of a permanent memorial “the next step in our healing.” The Vegas Strong Fund intends for the memorial, designed by JCJ Architecture, to be finished by the 10th anniversary of the shooting, he said.

“Once built, it will forever wrap around all of those impacted, those who lost so much and will forever grieve, those who cherish life even more now, but carry trauma unseen by others, those everyday heroes and first responders who rushed in to save lives,” he said.

County commissioners and U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nevada, were also among attendees.

The survivors

Survivor Kristy-Marie Hoff, a Las Vegas resident, said she comes to the sunrise ceremony every year.

“We are getting stronger,” she said. “I do see families getting stronger and that makes my heart warm.”

Sue Nelson, who lives in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, attended the ceremony with a blanket covered with the names of the 58 initial victims and the signatures of fellow survivors. The blanket is a way for people to come together, she said.

Terri Davis, another local survivor, attended the ceremony wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Bailey Schweitzer, the youngest victim. Davis said she helped Schweitzer’s mother get back to her hotel and find her daughter in the aftermath of the shooting.

This year’s remembrance was the sixth Davis has attended. “It’s important to honor the people we lost and support the family members who are here,” she said.

“As long as we can (keep remembering those lost and the events of October 1), these people will forever be a part of us,” she added.

McMahill said he’s learned survivors greet each other by saying, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“We are forever family,” Nelson said. She usually wears something that commemorates Route 91, like a keychain attached to her purse, and sometimes those items draw others in the Route 91 community to her.

“They’ll walk up behind me, tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’ You get a hug, you find out where they’re from and then you each go on your way,” she said. “It makes your day.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.