Las Vegas tragedy highlights communication challenges in initial moments of incident

On 1 October, a mass shooting took place near the popular Strip in Las Vegas. It was regarded as the worst shooting incident in the United States with more than 58 deaths including the gunman and hundreds more injured. As the shooting was underway, there was confusion among revellers in the area and first responders as to the source of the gunshots. The situation was further complicated by the fact that a country concert was going on when the gunman, Stephen Paddock started his rampage with some people mistaking the gunshots for the sound of fireworks.

*You can see a timeline report of the incident here

It was only moments later those responding police officers managed to determine that the gunshots originated from the 32^nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel instead of other locations including the nearby Luxor Hotel. About an hour into the shooting, police finally managed to breach Paddock’s room where they found him dead alongside a large cache of weapons including two assault rifles. Initially, there were also reports of another shooter in the vicinity but this was later dismissed on account of no evidence. The scale of the tragedy was enormous and it has no doubt once again put the spotlight on the US gun control debate.

For travellers, the shooting was also a reminder of the need to be equipped with necessary survival skills whenever such incidents occurred. Regardless if the shooting is a crime- or terror-related event, the first moments of attacks are often characterized by confusion as well as conflicting accounts of what exactly happened. The difficulty to gauge the circumstances also exacerbated by the panic among those nearby the attack scene, therefore, causing false information to be spread around.

The team at GWS has always been mindful when it comes to sending out alerts about such incident to its users. During the Las Vegas shooting, the first red alert that was sent out approximately 40 minutes after the first gunshots rang out, informing users in the 100km-radius about a shooting incident near the Mandalay Hotel as well as telling them to evacuate or stay away from the area if possible. Although getting as much information as possible in a timely manner was highly prioritized by the team, it was more important that only verified information be included in the alerts to avoid instigating fear among Safeture users. In the case where information was unclear, the team made sure that this was clearly communicated to users while efforts were being made to verify them. In the Las Vegas incident, GWS chose not to highlight the reports of the possible presence of another attacker as mentioned by some media outlets as there had not been any verified information to prove this. It later turned out to be, that there was only one attacker in the shooting.

The tragedy in Las Vegas has once again illustrated to GWS that the initial moments are always critical in ensuring the safety of those affected. Whilst getting users informed as soon as possible has always been the priority of GWS, it also strives to provide a balance between speed and accuracy in its alerts.

*You can see a timeline report of the incident here