Quiet Massacre
Pushed Into Independent Journalism
There is a correlation between how horrific an event is to the amount of media attention, research, and coverage that comes to fruition as a result. What society would find shocking as little as five years ago wouldn’t get more than a passing mention today. In a clickbait inundated world, it takes a story of real substance to garner the interest required to compel the desensitized masses into conjuring the energy required for anything other than an eye roll. We are past the era of media teasing news stories to build interest in their broadcasts. We live in a world where Google exists. We do not have to sit through the hundredth viewing of car insurance ads to get the information we desire. Long forgotten of the days of waiting until the ten o’clock report to learn exactly how your refrigerator is going to kill you.
The American public is given details of crimes in almost real-time by news outlets and responding law enforcement. In events that conclude in arrest, the Boston Marathon bombing, for instance, there was a steady flow of information on who the suspects were, their ages, and distinguishing characteristics. At the moment of the arrest, the media announced a win for America. There is a limit to what the public is told due to ensuring the integrity of investigations, and that future trials go on without being negatively impacted by the unchecked flow of information. While details on the crime may be withheld from the public, there are components that are typically made known quite uniformly. In situations wherein the suspect dies by their own hand or those of law enforcement thereby nullifying the need for prosecution, we are given every piece of information within thirty days of the incident.
Journalists diligently report the time, place, and events leading up to crimes meticulously mapping out for their audience the moments that ultimately led to tragedy. The information will have been disseminated to concerned citizens and revisited countless times and on every platform within the first twenty-four hours. We will have been presented facts that paint a picture of who the perpetrator was and are given every detail that has been verified pertaining to their existence. We are told where the killer had been working before the commission of the crime. We are told with whom they were living, whom they were dating, and otherwise affiliating during the preceding weeks and months, or even recent years leading up to their crimes. It is common to turn on any of the news networks and watch commentators and experts have at length discussions on the killer’s religious preferences, political loyalties, and what the motivations were compelling them to commit their crimes. It is nothing short of a miracle to be able to get so much information so quickly. There has only been one instance in recent memory that can be excluded from the status quo and I was there when it happened. The Las Vegas Massacre.
Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada: Mecca and rite of passage for young men and women as they celebrate the milestone of their twenty-first birthdays, an oasis in the desert for Los Angelenos escaping the pressures of the workweek with frequent weekend getaways, and world-renowned City of Lights serving as one of America’s must-see tourist destinations for travelers around the world. According to Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority, in 2017 the city entertained over 13 million tourists as they flocked to the city for vacation getaways. Additionally, Vegas became a temporary home for those staying in hotels on business lodging nearly 7 million people while they attended one or more of the nearly 22,000 conventions and meetings held on the strip at various resorts. With numbers like these, it seems that everyone has spent time within city limits at one time or another, so when tragedy strikes there we are affected in some way to it. Loss of life is horrific no matter where the crime transpires; however, there is more of a disconnect when it occurs in a town previously unknown to us. Hearing the reports of violence in places like Florida, Colorado, or Connecticut are horrific yet we feel distanced from it unless there is a personal connection. In that way, nearly everyone has a connection to Las Vegas. It is difficult to not immediately think: “I’ve been there!” or “My neighbor was just there a few weeks ago.” or the most troublesome thoughts, “I could have been there when that happened” and “What if that happens the next time I am there.”
We lost 58 men and women the night that a man with no motive, 62-year-old, retired millionaire, and avid video poker player, Stephen Paddock, opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. Another 422 sustained gunshot wounds with a total of over 800 injuries being sustained as a result of trampling, and other hazards while fleeing the killing ground for their lives. A story like this could go on in the news for months, if not years if it were a cut and dry case. This is nothing close to cut and dry. What we have uncovered about circumstances raises more questions than answers about the events and the agencies conducting the investigation. Countless questions arise concerning inconsistencies in reports to all-out lies told to citizens to hide mistakes by officers, or perhaps something more sinister: Exits being locked before the shooting making it impossible for the crowd to escape, an ever changing timeline from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, video evidence of the shooter in the days before the shooting being taken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and subsequently lost, going against protocol in multiple ways, statements of witnesses testifying to seeing multiple shooters on the ground, a TSA agent testifying that there were two woman videotaping the crowd in front of the stage referring to concertgoers as “Stupid white people” and “Its going to be like shooting fish in a barrel.”, no mention of follow up on any of the 2000 tips called in concerting the matter, more than 18,000 hours of video footage that Metro refuses to provide to citizens going against direct court orders, the Coroner going against court orders to release his reports as public record, and too many more to list here. Why isn’t the media commenting on any of this? Why did coverage of the investigation stop only a few weeks after the attack? Could it be the astronomic increase in media and advertisement budget spending of MGM Resorts and Casinos in the last quarter of the year?
I was one of the 7 million in 2017 attending a convention. It just so happened that I arrived in Vegas on October 1st. I, along with approximately 6000 other union members and their families was in attendance for the event. Coincidentally I wasn’t the only one of my immediate family in town. My parents happen to be one of the many aforementioned Los Angelenos that frequent the vibrant city to get away from everyday stresses. On this occasion, their trip was in celebration of my Mother’s 60th birthday. At the last minute, I had discovered that my brother happened to be driving out for the nation’s largest wedding convention. He owns a DJ company that specializes in wedding entertainment, lighting, and Master of Ceremonies duties and attends each year to keep on top of the newest trends. We hadn’t all been in the same room together for three years due to my living out of state and having a ridiculously demanding work schedule, and were excited to have the opportunity to visit with one another when my brother and I could get away from our work responsibilities.
I sat in my Las Vegas hotel room in the early hours of October 2, 2017, and frantically typed at my laptop. It was only hours into the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. I had been watching local news coverage while streaming the police scanner traffic from responding agencies after a failed attempt at getting past security to attend to the wounded. Only moments after the shooting started, security had started enforcing a lockdown at all the strip casinos. I received a phone call moments after the shooting began. “Everyones been shot, people are dying, everyone is dead” as my mom tried to keep it together as her birthday became mired with the blood and tears of the survivors as they ran into the Tropicana for safety. My parents took in as many concertgoers as they could, offering a place to get away from the chaos. All that was left as proof of what happened the next day were blood-stained carpets and walls that hotel staff tired and failed to clean, and also the view from the end of the hall. Two broken windows with curtains blowing in the wind. It was surreal to be witness to it. That view and what they represent served as the catalyst for the biggest undertaking of my life: discovering what happened in Vegas.
Check back here for new information. If you have any questions or if you were there and have any information or footage/photos from that night please contact me. MJ.Tuscany@Gmail.com or
Las Vegas Shooting Research PO Box 82313, Las Vegas, Nv, 89180
I will keep your identity confidential.
