Haven Street, located behind the parking lot for the Route 91 Harvest music festival grounds on the Las Vegas Strip where a gunman killed 58 people and injured more than 500, shows evidence of what ensued that night as concertgoers tried to escape days later, Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017.
Friday, Oct. 6, 2017 | 2 a.m.
When moments of danger occur, people's natural reaction is to find an area of safety.
For some of the 22,000 people fleeing the Route 91 Harvest concert mass shooting on Sunday at the Las Vegas Festival grounds, a street named Haven, coincidentally enough, served as just that.
Days after the tragedy, signs of mass panic remain in the surrounding area on Haven Street, just off Reno Avenue and just east of the festival site. They tell a graphic story of people fleeing for their lives, while hundreds of rounds of bullets continued to rain down on them from the 32nd floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay.
Two portions of metal fence of the Roman Catholic Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer church, where some concertgoers parked, are ripped from the concrete support beams, creating dual exit points about 40 feet between them. The metal is left hanging there, yellow crime scene tape attached and flapping in the wind.
Littered in the parking lot, in front of the opening, are several cowboy boots left behind by those caring more about their well-being than the property on their person.
Where the festivalgoers hastily made their way on the street, blood splatters can be seen, along with a pair of purse straps at the end of Haven Street, an area where a 7-foot-tall chain link fence was trampled, not far from a pair of large, white jet fuel tanks.
Frantically searching for places to take cover, victims managed to force their way into the nearest Haven Street office building. The panic of the scene can almost be relived as several windows were smashed. There are blood smears leading to the structure-turned-refuge.
Just a few feet away, a Mandalay Bay room key for Room 101, Floor 9, remains on the green grass — its owner unaware that the man responsible for the mayhem was a fellow guest, 23 stories above.
The room key is partially covered by a single sandal, size 9, and a pair of gold men’s sunglasses is abandoned nearby.
Traveling north on the sidewalk toward Reno Avenue is an asthma inhaler in the gutter and missing its cap, leaving one to wonder if its owner was able to catch their breath as they bolted. Just feet from the inhaler, blood stains the concrete in the driveway of office building 115, almost matching the structure's dingy brown hue.
As you near Reno Avenue on Haven Street, there is more evidence of frenzied moments, as shattered vehicle glass is strewn about near the parking stalls and across the gravel lot. The shards left behind might have been the result of people reportedly commandeering cars to transport injured victims to area hospitals.
Caught up in a horrific scene of pandemonium, the throngs seeking safety because of an armed maniac eventually found their safe haven on Haven Street.
