City of Las Vegas employee killed in shooting ‘didn’t do anything halfway’

The last time Cameron Robinson was at work, he nearly skipped out of the office he was so thrilled.

It was Thursday evening at Las Vegas City Hall, and Robinson’s four-day weekend promised time with his boyfriend, Bobby Eardley, who was Vegas-bound from their home in Utah.

The pair had a room booked at the Luxor, an easy walk away from the Route 91 Harvest Festival grounds.

Robinson’s boss of nearly four years, City Attorney Brad Jerbic, was ribbing Robinson about his love of country music.

“Thursday, one week ago almost to this minute, he was in my office talking to me about the concert,” Jerbic said in an interview last week. “I was teasing him because we have different tastes in music.”

Jerbic’s phone dinged that weekend with photos Robinson texted from the country music festival.

But Monday morning, Jerbic learned that a gunman on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay shot into the crowd of thousands during Jason Aldean’s set, the last of the weekend.

Jerbic couldn’t reach Robinson.

And he soon learned his friend, the 28-year-old he saw as a little brother, was among the 58 people killed.

Robinson joined the city attorney’s office nearly four years ago, as a records specialist. His office was in the middle of the larger legal office at City Hall, and that was fitting, Jerbic said.

“He was the center of the office. Cameron didn’t do anything halfway,” Jerbic said. “Whether it was a potluck, a get-together — he would seize that opportunity. He was spontaneous and absolutely fun. People have to know who he was and what we lost.”

Jerbic doesn’t often talk to reporters, he prefers to leave that to elected officials. But he has been vocal this time. He wants to keep Robinson’s memory alive.

The two were close. Robinson moved to southern Utah about a year ago to live with Eardley. Despite the two-hour trek between there and Las Vegas, Robinson was always on time for work.

Before Robinson moved to Utah, he’d call Jerbic on a weekend morning to say “we’re going on a hike.”

“No, you’re going on a hike,” Jerbic would reply.

It didn’t take long for Jerbic’s doorbell to ring, and for Robinson to let himself in. The two had the keys to each other’s homes in case one got locked out.

“Get up, get up, we’re going hiking,” Jerbic recalled Robinson energetically calling.

Ultimately, he would prevail at rousing Jerbic.

“Then he’d drag you two miles straight up a mountain,” Jerbic said. “And he’d run, like he was a centaur or something.”

At City Hall, everyone knew Robinson, Jerbic said.

The International Municipal Lawyers Association reached out to Jerbic last week about starting a scholarship in Robinson’s name.

At a conference Jerbic and Robinson attended in Las Vegas a couple years ago, everyone was toting around bundles of paper — maps of the site and details about programs.

Robinson wondered why there wasn’t an app. So he wrote one.

“Everything he touched, he made better,” Jerbic said.

Robinson’s family held an open-casket viewing last Friday, and then they went to a dedication ceremony for a new healing garden in downtown Las Vegas that’s dedicated to the shooting victims.

A celebration of life for Robinson will be held at a park outside St. George, Utah, Saturday evening, where lanterns will be launched toward the sky at dusk.

Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @JamieMunksRJ on Twitter.