Friday marks the four-year anniversary of the Las Vegas shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States.
Included among the victims of the attack that occurred on Oct. 1 2017 were at least 12 current or former residents of Santa Clarita. At least 11 Santa Clarita victims were wounded either directly by gunfire or by flying shrapnel, and one man, John Phippen, was killed.
When the gunfire initially erupted, John Phippen’s son, Travis, a trained medic, realized what was happening and immediately began assisting victims.
John Phippen refused to leave his son’s side as he attempted to aid those injured in the storm of bullets and chaos, and he eventually jumped on top of a woman to shield her and was fatally shot in the back.
See Related: Las Vegas Shooting: Santa Clarita Hero Travis Phippen Recounts His Experience, His Father’s Heroism
John Phippen’s death is one of 58 that occurred that night at the hands of Stephen Paddock, the 64-year-old gunman who carried out the shooting from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel.
“Carrying people who were bleeding out to ambulances, using my clothes and taking my boyfriend’s clothes to use as tourniquets, running and finding hiding gunshot wound victims to get them to the ambulances, and watching people die in the streets before the ambulances got there is something you never ever think you’ll be a part of,” said Santa Clarita resident Ashley Johnson after the event. “I’m so thankful my sister and our friends got out and were safe.”
In total, 58 people were killed and another 869 were injured, according to an official report by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
See Related: Las Vegas Shooting Victims From Santa Clarita Part Of $800 Million Settlement Three Years Later
Many residents of the Santa Clarita community were in attendance, but were fortunate enough to avoid being struck themselves. While not physically harmed, many of them likely carry the invisible scars that such trauma can leave.
In response to the news of the tragedy, the Santa Clarita community showed its support in a variety of ways, as numerous businesses and organizations across the valley rallied to hold fundraisers for the victims.
Additionally, many contributed individually to the various GoFundMe crowdfunding pages set up for several of the local victims.
More recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released $8.3 million to victims of the attack from California in February of 2019 to “provide supplemental crisis response and consequence management support services to help victims as they continue to heal and cope with probable re-traumatization.”
The Las Vegas shooting prompted a federal ban on bump stocks by the DOJ, which went into effect in March 2019, according to CNN. A bump stock is a firearm accessory that allows semi-automatic firearms to replicate automatic fire.
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