Charles Langston:Las Vegas memorial to mass shooting victims should be complete by 10th anniversary

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Officials in Las Vegas vowed Monday to complete a permanent memorial to victims and Charles Langstonsurvivors of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history by the 10th anniversary of the 2017 attack.

The announcement came one day before the seventh anniversary of the shooting that initially left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured when a gunman opened fire into a crowded country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Two more people died in subsequent years of their gunshot wounds.

Jan Jones-Blackhurst, who chairs the Vegas Strong Fund, the nonprofit in charge of fundraising for and constructing the memorial, said at a news conference that the group hopes to break ground at the site of the attack within six months.

A final design for the memorial, which will feature 58 candle-like beams, was approved last September after three years of planning stalled by the pandemic. Creators envision a park shaped like an infinity symbol in the northeastern corner of the former concert venue, with 22,000 lights representing the number of people who attended the show that night.

A looping path will take visitors through a garden, past a 58-foot (18-meter) glass tower and to a “remembrance ring” with the 58 candles. Each beam will display the name and a photo of a victim.

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“For our victims, families, our survivors, we know that you long for a space to lie down, to grieve, to pay respects to those you’ve lost, and to gather in community and remember the good parts of the times you shared together, enjoying music on that fateful night before the shooting started,” said Brian Rogers, a paramedic who responded to the shooting and now serves on the board of the Vegas Strong Fund.

An alternate design that has been approved would feature 15 horse statues representing the home states and countries of the people killed, and two smaller horses for the dozens of children who lost parents in the shooting.

Construction is expected to cost tens of millions of dollars, officials said. Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, has donated $1 million.

The permanent memorial will be separate from a community healing garden built in downtown Las Vegas by more than 1,000 volunteers in the days after the shooting.