Lessons from Las Vegas shooting: send first responders to hospitals
By Jessie Bekker Las Vegas Review-Journal
Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Jon Klassen and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Branden Clarkson, via videoconference from Las Vegas, give a presentation the on the response to the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip during a Health and Human Services committee meeting in Carson City Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhoto
Assemblywoman Connie Munk, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblyman Michael C. Sprinkle, D-Sparks, watch a presentation from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Branden Clarkson and Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Jon Klassen on the response to the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip during a Health and Human Services committee meeting in Carson City Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhoto
Assemblywoman Connie Munk, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblyman Michael C. Sprinkle, D-Sparks, watch a presentation from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Branden Clarkson and Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Jon Klassen on the response to the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip during a Health and Human Services committee meeting in Carson City Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhoto
Assemblyman Gregory T. Hafen II, R-Pahrump, and Assemblywoman Robin L. Titus, R-Wellington, watch a presentation from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Branden Clarkson and Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Jon Klassen on the response to the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip during a Health and Human Services committee meeting in Carson City Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhoto
Members of the Assembly Health and Human Services committee, including Alexander Assefa, D-Las Vegas, second from left, watch a presentation from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Branden Clarkson and Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Jon Klassen on the response to the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip during a Health and Human Services committee meeting in Carson City Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhoto
Members of the Assembly Health and Human Services committee, including Bea Duran, D-Las Vegas, left, watch a presentation from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Branden Clarkson and Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Jon Klassen on the response to the Oct. 1, 2017, shooting on the Las Vegas Strip during a Health and Human Services committee meeting in Carson City Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KMCannonPhoto
An ambulance drives past vehicles stopped on Interstate 15 in Las Vegas after a shooting on the Strip left 58 dead Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Joel Angel Juarez Las Vegas Review-Journal @jajuarezphoto
Emergency workers treat the wounded as Las Vegas police respond during an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas on Sunday, Oct. 1, 2017. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto
An ambulance rushes to the trauma emergency room at the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center Monday, Oct. 2, 2017, after a Sunday night shooting on the Strip left 58 dead. Joel Angel Juarez Las Vegas Review-Journal @jajuarezphoto
Las Vegas police and emergency vehicles on scene following an active shooter situation that left 50 dead and over 200 injured on the Las Vegas Strip during the early hours of Monday, Oct. 2, 2017. Chase Stevens Las Vegas Review-Journal @csstevensphoto
In a presentation to Nevada lawmakers Wednesday, officials reflecting on the emergency response to the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting said that first responders should be dispersed between the scene of a major incident and area hospitals to help with the influx of patients.
Metropolitan Police Lt. Branden Clarkson and Clark County Deputy Fire Chief Jon Klassen gave an hourlong briefing to the Assembly Health and Human Services committee meeting, the first of the 2019 legislative session.
It was the first time a review of response to the incident was formally presented to legislators, though Clarkson and Klassen said they’ve shared a longer version of their presentation with other organizations.
“We should’ve gone to the area hospitals … as opposed to throwing resources at a crowd running past us,” Klassen said, adding that the department is working with hospitals to create a mass casualty incident plan that would allow for emergency responders to help with triage and transport at hospitals.
Klassen and Clarkson provided the committee with background information on the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, still the deadliest in modern U.S. history, killing 58 and wounding more than 800 others.
Much of the information was a reiteration of observations officials have previously reported, including grievances over the flood of calls from bystanders who falsely reported shooters across the Strip.
The two did not address documented communication issues over police radio channels, which officers wrote in incident reports was spotty inside the Mandalay Bay, where the shooter was stationed. Nor did they address the lack of cross-agency radio communication, which experts have said could have delayed information sharing between police, firefighters and paramedics.
In a response to a question from Republican Rep. Robin Titus, who asked whether communication was improved in the Oct. 1 response compared to cross-agency communication during the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Klassen said the agencies “could do things better, but we are much better.”
“It’s not perfect; we still have work to do,” he said. “But it is much better and expensive. Expensive purchases have been made.”
