After Las Vegas Shooting, Security At Concerts Comes Under Scrutiny

The shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas Sunday was not the first time in recent history an attacker had chosen to target people enjoying a night of festivities with friends.

In May, a suicide bomber brought a concealed explosive into the foyer of the U.K.'s Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert, killing 22 people, the youngest of whom was 8 years old. Paris' popular concert venue The Bataclan was the site of a terrorist attack in November 2015 when terrorists armed with suicide belts and assault rifles entered a sold-out Eagles Of Death Metal concert and killed 129 people. And in June 2016, 49 people were killed at a nightclub in Orlando.

The gunman in Las Vegas opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, apparently shooting at random. Police busted into the shooter's hotel room where he was found dead, but not before he killed 59 people and injured hundreds. The shooting is the deadliest in modern U.S. history. (For more coverage of the shooting in Las Vegas and other local news, subscribe to the Las Vegas Patch.)

Also See: The Victims Of The Las Vegas Shooting

The uptick of attacks at concerts and similar venues begs the question of what can be done to improve security and ensure patron safety.

The Vegas shooter, who authorities identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, was able to take advantage of his victims, standing high up over the 22,000 people in attendance Sunday at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival.

"It certainly makes it easier that he had an elevated position," Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent James Gagliano said on CNN's "New Day." "This was an ambush. He set up basically an ambush zone and it was a killing field. "

Gagliano also said the shooter took advantage of the chaos, as attendees had no way of knowing where the shots were coming from.

"Should I run right, should I run left, should I lay down on the ground? What should I do?" Gagliano said. "And the shooter took advantage of that chaos."

Paddock was armed with dozens of weapons, multiple rounds of ammunition and had several pounds of ammonium nitrate, a compound used in bomb-making. What else made the shooter's position unique was the fact that he was a local, and it's not like the bags of ammunition he took to the hotel were screened at an airport, Former NYPD Detective Sgt. Joe Giacalone explained on CNN.

"So he's a local guy, so he just drove his car with all these things in it and just checked himself in and probably took his own luggage up there, too," Giacalone said.

David Yorio, the managing director at Citadel Security, a private security company in New York City, said that despite the challenging situation that presented itself in Vegas — a music festival surrounded by tall buildings — there are things that can be done to ensure safety.

"The best example you could use is if you look at what happens in D.C. when the president moves around," Yorio told Patch in a phone interview.

Suppose instead of a concert if it was a political rally, he said. The Secret Service would have snipers on roofs and agents would talk to security directors at any nearby hotels and would get a list of people staying there. Such security is usually not in place for outdoor festivals, but it could be. Yorio pointed to when the pope visited New York City as an example of when such measures were in place.

In Vegas, Yorio says it,s not something people thought about prior to the event, but there are things that can be done; it's a question of whether the show producer wants to pay for the security and go through the full process.

That discussion about the added threat from elevated positions is likely to take place among local and federal law enforcement in the days to come.

"We’ve had concerts right out on the beach, and in light of this event one of the things we’re going to have to consider moving forward is this type of attack," Capt. Daniel Morgalo of the Miami Beach Police Department told Miami Patch.

One of the things Morgalo said his department had discussed is deploying snipers from the SWAT team whose sole purpose is to watch elevated positions.

In Austin, where the annual Austin City Limits Music Festival is scheduled to take place this weekend, authorities are already amending security measures.

Interim Austin Police Chief Brian Manley spoke at a press conference Monday, reassuring the public about the security plan that has been months in the making while acknowledging that it had to be altered after the shooting in Las Vegas.

"However, we can't come in on the day after an event like we saw happen in Las Vegas and not reconsider our plans and make sure we are confident we have addressed every threat possible," Manley said.

Patch editors Tony Cantu and Paul Scicchitano contributed to this report. Rosemary Purdy also contributed.

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