The Las Vegas Golden Knights are honoring the victims of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in their hometown by retiring jersey no. 58 in remembrance of the massacre’s 58 victims.
The hockey team made the powerful gesture in their final game of the 2018 season. As they did, the names of all of the victims were projected onto the ice, along with the words “Vegas Strong.”
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So unbelievably powerful. No player will ever wear the #58 in a Golden Knights uniform. It is officially retired and this banner will now hang in the rafters at T-Mobile Arena. #VegasStrong pic.twitter.com/pKAkIqx6PC
— Kevaney Martin (@KevaneyMartin) April 1, 2018
“So unbelievably powerful,” wrote local 8 News reporter Kevaney Martin on Twitter. “No player will ever wear the #58 in a Golden Knights uniform. It is officially retired and this banner will now hang in the rafters at T-Mobile Arena.”
A banner with 58 stars and all of the victims’ names hung in the arena as well.
“Tonight we fly 58 stars in the sky as a reminder that the 58 will always be with us,” said an announcer at the game, to tumultuous applause. “We are and always will be Vegas strong.”
The Golden Knights have made several tributes to the victims from their hometown throughout the season. In October, within weeks of the shooting itself, players were escorted onto the ice by first responders from the tragedy. The victims’ names lit up the ice at the time as well, and the crowd participated in a 58 second moment of silence in their memory, according to Bleacher Report.
The team even refrained from showing advertisements on the side boards during the game, instead simply showing the words “Vegas Strong.”
“Needless to say it’s not going to be a typical opener,” said George McPhee, Golden Knights general manager at the time. “We’ll save that for Friday. (Tonight) is not about us: It’s about honoring and remembering the victims, and supporting the families and recognizing the first responders.”
The Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting on Oct. 1 was one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. Gunman Stephen Paddock used an AR-15 assault rifle with a bump stock device attached to shoot at the assembled crowd of concert-goers from the balcony of his hotel room.
Paddock later died of a self-inflicted gunshot would after carrying out his deadly shooting. He never expressed a motive for the attack, but he did put careful planning into it.
The shooting is just one of the recent attacks that has spurred the March For Our Lives movement, a group of young activists fighting for new gun legislation to prevent mass shootings and gun violence, and an end to the overwhelming power of gun lobbying groups.
