Metro Police’s after-action review of Oct. 1 response continues to shape policing here, worldwide

OCT. 1 REVISITED

By Grace Da Rocha- A version of this story was posted on lasvegassun.com.

Some of the lessons learned by Metro Police investigating the mass shooting that immediately killed 58 concertgoers and injured hundreds of others seven years ago on the Las Vegas Strip are being used by law enforcement across the country to strengthen their security measures.

Then-Metro Capt. Kelly McMahill and Detective Stephanie Ward spent 18 months studying the 10-minute massacre, conducting at least 600 interviews, watching 3,000 bodycam videos and listening to 5,000 dispatch calls to author the “1 October After-Action Review.”

McMahill, wife of current Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill, spends her retirement from the department traveling the country to present the findings. She and Ward offered 93 suggestions to enhance security for future events.

The after-action report is such a resource, Kelly McMahill said, that Cleveland Police Chief Dorothy Todd keeps a copy of it on her desk. It’s become a staple for police departments across the country and around the world, McMahill added.

The anniversary of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history is Tuesday.

“I think that there’s been some really remarkable changes that have been made, things that are certainly keeping us safer up and down the Strip,” McMahill said. “We hear that (people use the report) a lot, which tells me people have picked it up and they’re learning from it.”

A notable takeaway from the report: “Cross-agency collaboration is critical for a quick and effective response,” investigators concluded.

The response seven years ago to the Route 91 Harvest music festival brought 13 different law enforcement agencies and three ambulance companies to “address a highly chaotic scene, neutralize the threat, and tend to the hundreds of victims.”

But problems with radio communications in parking structures and Strip resorts near the festival grounds made it difficult for agencies to communicate with each other, the report found.

That poor communication was part of the criticism Metro faced in its response. The report also cited officers for not having enough tourniquets to tend to the wounded.

“We are a learning organization, and we have some of the most robust policies (in) the country on how we respond to things and how we address certain issues,” Metro Capt. Kurt McKenzie said. “We try our hardest to prevent a lot of these incidents, but sometimes we’re not fortunate enough to prevent them, so when we are unable to prevent them, we have to do our (best) really to mitigate them the best way we can.”

Disciplinary actions were also taken against some of the responding officers, including one who the agency determined had hesitated to act when he and a trainee were a floor below the shooter as gunfire erupted. The officer has since been reinstated to the force.

Recommendations taken to heart

Of the 93 policy-change recommendations made in the report, 100% of them have been addressed in some form by the department, McKenzie said.

The recommended actions spanned from increasing staffing in Metro’s emergency management department to creating procedures outlining how information is disseminated via social media during significant incidents.

A few of the suggestions haven’t been fully met; one of them being the agency’s communications and radio system. They were similar issues Metro dealt with in 2017, said McKenzie, who added that the agency has continued to find problems as it reassesses Metro’s system.

“As an agency, we are diligently working to improve spots on the Strip or other buildings that don’t perform to the standards in which we hold ourselves to,” said McKenzie, who has spent 25 years with Metro. “It’s a continual balance between the department and the communication sector that provides our radio systems to ultimately fix all the challenges we have with our radio system.”

Supporting survivors

McMahill’s biggest takeaway from the after-action report was the need for long-term support of victims and emergency response
personnel.

Though Metro trained for large-scale events, the agency “sort of clapped (its) hands and said, great job, and walked away from the table,” McMahill explained. Officers after Oct. 1 helped set up the Family Assistance Center at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and have since been trained to continue discussing ways to support survivors of mass violence.

And as she continues to travel the country for her consulting work, McMahill has seen the significance of other recommendations, like boosting tourniquet supplies in case of medical emergencies, checking hotel rooms facing large outdoor event venues and training officers to “take out” suspects from elevated platforms.

In fact, McMahill said that after her husband took office as sheriff in 2023, he began requiring Metro’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) snipers be trained to address a threat in an elevated area from a helicopter within minutes of being notified.

McMahill, McKenzie and Jan Jones Blackhurst — who
was chairwoman of the Nevada Resort Association at the time of the shooting — all agreed on at least one aspect of the mass shooting: There was a bit of good that came from the tragedy.

With this improved system, Metro has been able to teach others — like officers at UNLV Police Services — how to respond during emergencies. It’s something that came in handy last December when an armed man walked onto campus and killed three professors and wounded another.

The after-action report has also made ripples in police departments around the globe, McMahill said. The retired deputy chief now does consulting work with other police forces in the U.S., and often hears from other officers that they use the after-action report as reference material, just like Todd in Cleveland.

Some of the policy-change suggestions made in the after-action report, such as the ability for housekeeping or security to do random checks of hotel rooms facing large outdoor event spaces, have been implemented as far as London, McMahill said.

It’s also available on websites like the National Policing Institute, Community Resources for Justice and the VALOR Officer Safety and Wellness Program.

Now seven years after the tragedy, McKenzie said the department wasn’t stopping at just the after-action report. With the help of its regional partners, McKenzie said, Metro will continue to improve its security and response systems. It’s becoming an especially big priority as the region plays hosts to large-scale, high-profile events, such as the Super Bowl, the Las Vegas Grand Prix and the NCAA Final Four, more frequently.

“One of the good things that really came from that night is first responders and Metro and others will never be exactly the same; what they’ve learned that night, they have put into training and development... that was a huge outcome,” Blackhurst said. “From tragedy, sometimes, comes thoughtful progress.”

grace.darocha@gmgvegas.
com / 702-948-7854 / @grace-darocha