DEAR Blog
Disaster Experiential Activity and Reflection
Project by Noah Hass-Cohen, Psy.D., Alliant International University School of Professional Psychology
Contributors: Jeremy Arzt, M.A.; Joanna Clyde Findley, M.A.; Anya Kavanaugh, B.F.A;
Alliant International University, Couples and Family Therapy, Crisis and Trauma course students
April 25, 2015
October 1, 2017: Las Vegas Strip Shooting
Background
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Shooter: Stephen Paddock, born April 9th, 1953 Clinton IA. Made his money in real estate, gambled frequently. Motivation for Mass murder still unknown 1 year later.
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32nd floor room was used for shooting, 23 guns, thousands of rounds of ammunition. Began shooting out window of his hotel room at 10:05 PM into the festival goers, ceases fire at 10:15 pm
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10:17 police arrive 32 floor, begin to evacuate the floor before confronting shooter
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11:20 SWAT blow open the door to suite, find Paddock dead.
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2 hours 26 minutes from start the massacre was over
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22,000 attendees: 58 people killed, 850 injured at a Country Music Festival on LV Strip Route 91 Harvest Festival
![Vegas Strip Shooting.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/afd2be_05e94ca85ed64ce9af926cbb743e795b~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_474,h_265,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Vegas%20Strip%20Shooting.png)
Psychological Impact
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800 people injured, 58 dead. 858 people directly affected by injury. Each of their families must now suffer through the trauma of their loved one being hurt, or killed.
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22,000 people who attended to country festival. Each one of those people is now traumatized from witnessing the carnage of a mass shooting.
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22,000 families of those at the concert must now deal with the trauma of their loved ones near death experience.(if each family is conservatively 5 people, that’s 110,000 family members)
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Whole country demoralized and shocked. No rhyme or reason for attack makes trauma harder to comprehend and deal with