LAS VEGAS (CelebrityAccess) Las Vegas police have released a department “after-action review” that has been characterized as “our textbook on our response” regarding the Route 91 Harvest music festival massacre.
The festival was the site of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, killing 58 people and injuring as many as 850 when a shooter opened fire on the crowd from the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in October 2017. Some of the 93 recommendations in the 158-page report include securing high-rise buildings overseeing open-air events and training officers on how to stop a shooter in an elevated position, according to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
Other requirements include planning with neighboring police, fire, hospital and coroner officials and to have officers wear non-reflective vests to make them less of a target. The report also recommends more paramedics and trauma kits be available at large-scale events, according to the Associated Press.
“We hope we never have to use these procedures that we are putting in place,” Lombardo said at a July 10 press conference. He added the report is required reading for every Vegas police officer above the rank of sergeant. The report follows a 61-page after-action report issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Clark County Fire Department and Las Vegas Police in August and about a year after the police closed the criminal investigation with a 187-page report.
Lombardo said changes are scheduled to be implemented at events drawing at least 15,000 and the report lists 17 examples such as the New Year’s fireworks event on the Las Vegas Strip, NASCAR races at the Las Vegas Speedway and the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon.
