Aftermath of shooting dominates Las Vegas City Council meeting
Las Vegas city employee Cameron Robinson could tell if someone needed to smile, so he’d walk by and make a face to draw out a grin.
A records specialist in the city attorney’s office, Robinson often sang while he was working. And if someone needed help, “he was who you asked,” City Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian said at Wednesday’s council meeting.
“He was a remarkable human being,” Tarkanian said. “He will be deeply missed.”
Robinson, a southern Utah resident, was one of 58 victims killed Sunday night when gunman Stephen Paddock aimed roughly 10 minutes of sustained gunfire toward thousands of people attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival from a 32nd floor room at Mandalay Bay.
Robinson was shot in the neck, his sister Meghan Ervin told the Review-Journal on Monday. He was at the festival with his boyfriend, who survived.
Other Las Vegas city employees, who have not been publicly identified, were also injured in the attack, Tarkanian said.
Wednesday’s City Council meeting went on, but it was far from business as usual.
The council canceled its usual ceremonial agenda, an often lighthearted start to each meeting that recognizes employees and citizens. Instead, the council members had a moment of silence and talked about the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history, and its aftermath.
“Our country finally sees us not just as a city where you go and have fun and everything stays in Las Vegas, or Sin City or anything like that,” Tarkanian said. “It knows what we are: human beings who care.”
Mayor Carolyn Goodman missed Wednesday’s meeting, because she was among the local and state officials waiting to greet President Donald Trump when Air Force One landed in Las Vegas.
Council members on Wednesday largely praised the first responders, or grew emotional talking about the victims.
“God bless this city for responding the way it did,” Councilman Stavros Anthony said. “And I think we’re going to be OK.”
The discussion then turned to gun control.
“How stupid do we have to be to allow this to continue to happen?” Councilman Bob Coffin said.
“Hell, that’s not political, that’s survival,” Coffin said, responding to criticism that the wake of a mass shooting isn’t the time to raise the gun control issue.
Michelle Fiore, a Republican former state assemblywoman who joined the council in July, asserted that “politicizing” the shooting “takes our eyes off the true cause.” She then said “psychotropic drugs” are to blame, holding up Wednesday’s Review-Journal and pointing to a story about Paddock, the shooter, being prescribed in June the anti-anxiety drug diazepam.
“These drugs were originally formulated in the military to make an aggressive soldier. To change your mindset. And it’s the mindset that pulls the trigger — it’s not the gun,” Fiore said. “And when we look at this morning’s headlines, we’re talking about psychotropic drugs that make you aggressive. That are passed off as antidepressants. … These drugs were formulated as a killing machine.”
Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @JamieMunksRJ on Twitter.
Memorial for healingLas Vegas city officials will dedicate a new healing garden Friday night downtown, in response to Sunday’s mass shooting that left 58 dead and more than 500 wounded.
The community healing garden will have a wall of remembrance, trees, flowers, walkways and benches, “all to create something beautiful out of something horrific,” a city news release said.
Stonerose Landscapes principals designed a memorial garden this week, which is expected to be finished by the 7:30 p.m. Friday ceremony at 1015 S. Casino Center Blvd.
The garden is being constructed on a roughly half-acre piece of vacant land the city owns at Charleston and Casino Center boulevards, Councilman Bob Coffin said.
A number of local people, companies and organizations are contributing to building the park.
The city is also accepting cards and messages from people who want to express themselves following Sunday’s attack. Cards can be mailed to or dropped off at Las Vegas City Hall: #Hearts4Vegas, c/o Las Vegas City Hall, 495 S. Main St., Las Vegas, NV. 89101. People can also attend the ceremony Friday. For more information: cityoflasvegas.link/hearts4vegas.
