On Sunday, October 1, 2017, the deadliest mass shooting in modern America occurred when a gunman opened fire into a crowd enjoying a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 59 and injuring another 500. Time almost stopped as the crowd ran in panic and attempted to avoid the bullets raining down, while some brave heroes tried to protect those around them. It was an awful event that law enforcement officials, the media, and ordinary citizens have tried to both unravel and understand, all while attempting to cope with the fact that this shooting was entirely intentional and meticulously planned.

The gunman’s name was Stephen Paddock, age 64. He fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel at a crowd enjoying Las Vegas’ Country Harvest Music Festival at 10:05 p.m. The barrage ended at 10:15, and two minutes later, police first arrived at the 32nd floor, sweeping the hallways and checking for bystanders as they waited for back-up. At 11:20 they breached the room to find Paddock dead, having committed suicide. After the shooting, authorities found that Paddock had 23 firearms in his hotel room, with about a dozen being fitted with a legal modification called a ‘bump stock,’ which allows shots to be fired almost automatically from firearms that usually cannot perform this action. They also found that in Paddock’s truck parked a short distance from the hotel were 1,000 more rounds of ammunition and several pounds of the legal explosive tannerite, a possible indicator that this vehicle may have been another of Paddock’s weapons, one he thankfully could not use. As the case continues to unfold, authorities dig deeper into Paddock’s past and mental state at the time of this crime, beginning with the questioning of his long-time girlfriend Marilou Danley. Information is sparse and conflicting on Paddock’s life prior to this event, but all involved agencies and departments will continue to work at understanding this shooting to prevent any similar events in the future.

Throughout this tragedy, many ordinary people risked their lives for others. Mothers shielded their children while other members of the crowd used their vehicles to rush those in need of medical assistance to hospitals ahead of late-coming ambulances. These extraordinary heroics provide much-needed hope from this horrible devastation. A man named Kevin Grey stayed in the VIP section that he was in to provide CPR to the injured around him, and his wife Dawn-Marie Gray said this of her husband’s bravery, “That’s being a human being. That’s doing our job.”

The Las Vegas shooting was devastating and should never be forgotten, but if one can look past all the deaths and the horrible act itself, they can see how much good there still is in this world, as ordinary people risked their lives in the face of great danger for, in some cases, complete strangers. That provides a great hope in the midst of this despair, and allows the world to see that even during terrible acts, there are still those who stand tall in defense of others.