Vegas residents warned July 4 fireworks could trigger PTSD
Mental health experts are warning Las Vegas residents that 4th July fireworks could trigger panic attacks for survivors of the Route 91 Harvest festival mass shooting.
The attack on the music festival on October 1st last year became the deadliest gun massacre in modern US history, after gunman Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured more than 850.
Officials are now asking locals to speak to their neighbors ahead of tonight's celebrations to warn them in case they plan on setting off fireworks.
Mental health experts are asking Las Vegas residents to speak to their neighbors ahead of tonight's 4th July fireworks, as they may trigger panic attacks among shooting survivors. Pictured are New Years' Eve fireworks over the Las Vegas strip
'Many of those who were at the Route 91 festival have described the onset of the shooting as sounding like fireworks,' Terri Keener of Vegas Strong Resiliency Center, told the Las Vegas Review Journal.
'Over the Fourth of July holiday, the sound of fireworks may be a startling reminder of that night for many survivors.'
The Center also warned survivors to prepare themselves for 'possible reactions, like anxiety, flashbacks and embarrassment over those feelings.'
Gunman Stephen Paddock opened fire on the open-air Route 91 Harvest Festival concert across Las Vegas Boulevard from his room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel on October 1, 2017.
Trauma of survivors: People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival as gunman Stephen Paddock fires on the crowds on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Killer: Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured more than 850
In addition to the 58 casualties, 851 people were injured, 422 of them with gunshot wounds.
Paddock was found dead in the hotel room after the mass murder - having shot himself - surrounded by 23 rifles strewn about the room.
Fourteen of the rifles were fitted with 'bump stock' devices to allow rapid-fire shooting similar to that of automatic weapons.
Questions have since been raised about the police's response, amid changing timelines from Las Vegas police and the FBI in the days after the shooting.
A veteran police officer's self-described 'freeze' in the hotel hallway outside Paddock's room has prompted a review of whether lives could have been saved if officers had acted faster.