Las Vegas Mass Shooting Latest: Who Are The Victims?

Las Vegas Mass Shooting Latest: Who Are The Victims?

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A more detailed picture is beginning to emerge from the chaos and devastation of Sunday’s country music concert on the Las Vegas Strip that became the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

With more than 500 people injured and 59 killed, “It’s a long, laborious process to identify the victims and reunite them with the family members,” said Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.

And while there are numerous social media reports about the victims, here is what we know about some of those killed from official sources:

Sonny Melton

Melton, a registered nurse at the Henry County Medical Center in Paris, Tenn., was in the lifesaving business, but his employer confirmed he lost his own life. He was at the concert with his wife, Heather, an orthopedic surgeon, who made it out alive.

“He saved my life,” Heather Melton told USA Today. “He grabbed me from behind and started running when I felt him get shot in the back.”

Lisa Romero-Muniz

Romero-Muniz, a grandmother, worked as a discipline secretary at Hiroshi Miyamura High School in Gallup, N.M.

“She was not only an employee of our school district, but was an incredible loving and sincere friend, mentor and advocate for students,” Gallup-McKinley County Public Schools Superintendent Mike Hyatt said in a statement.

Sandra Casey

Casey also worked in a school; she had been a a special education teacher at Manhattan Beach Middle School in Los Angeles County for the past nine years. The Manhattan Beach Unified School District said Casey was “loved by students and colleagues alike and will be remembered for her sense of humor, her passion for her work, her devotion to her students, and her commitment to continuing her own learning.”

School Superintendent Mike Matthews emailed school families to say that Casey was among numerous Manhattan Beach high school and middle school employees who were at the concert; the others escaped unharmed.

Rachael Parker

Parker was also from Manhattan Beach. She was a 10-year veteran of the city’s police department and worked as a records technician. The 33-year-old “was shot and ultimately lost her life in the hospital,” police said in a statement. Parker was among four department employees at the concert; one officer was shot and suffered minor injuries.

Law enforcement personnel

Among the 22,000 people at the concert were numerous off-duty police officers. They didn’t attend the concert in their capacity as law enforcers; they were there simply to experience the music. They wound up among the dead and wounded.

One off-duty Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer, whose identity has not been confirmed, was killed, according to a department statement.

A Los Angeles Police Department officer who was among “[s]everal off-duty LAPD employees [who] traveled to Las Vegas to enjoy the festival” was shot, according to a police statement. And while the “officer is expected to make a full recovery,” the department said it is still trying to ascertain whether other employees were injured.

Two members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at the concert were also hit by gunfire; one is in critical condition and the other is stable, according to a department statement.

Also from California, a police officer from Ontario, two employees from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department employee were also among the wounded.

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