I had planned a vacation back in early summer to spend a few days in Las Vegas in October, followed by a few days camping on the beach south of Coronado near San Diego. Little did we know that a crazed lunatic would open fire on a crowd of unsuspecting concert goers at the Route 91 Country Music festival across the Las Vegas Strip from the Mandalay Bay Hotel just a couple of days before the vacation was to start.
After some soul searching, it was decided that we would still go as planned. The mood in town was, to say the least, somber. The Strip was closed near the venue until Wednesday following the massacre, and the gawkers were streaming northbound creating a real traffic mess. I drove south on the strip to head back to my hotel and I saw groups of mourners gathered at the makeshift memorial at the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign. It was time to document what I had been seeing on the streets. After capturing people in various stages of mourning, I left the memorial feeling very quiet and introspective, just imagining what those innocent victims must have gone through. Stay #VegasStrong, people of Vegas!