A Las Vegas cop patrolling the streets after reports of an active shooter at the Route 91 Harvest concert
J Van Dyke was 7 hours into his shift when reports of an active shooter at Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas were first broadcast on his radio. An officer with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, he described the next 11.5 hours of his now-extended shift full of "stress and anxiety".
59 people
died and over 500 were injured in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history on Sunday night when a
gunman fired at concert goers at Route 91 Harvest music festival from the
32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. In a Facebook
post that has gone viral, officer J Van Dyke has penned his thoughts about the "chaos" of the bloody
shooting and the wave of first responders that came forward to help the shattered city.
"The chaos of not knowing where the shots were coming from, or who was shooting them. The fact that it was a fully automatic weapon, machine-gun style... Whoever this was, he outguns us. Hearing gun shots on the radio while my partners were asking for help, knowing you are still miles away, is nothing that any cop wants to ever experience," he wrote in a post that has been shared over 63,000 times.
"Put your politics aside," he urged in the post, asking people to honour the bravery and courage of the first responders, many of whom, he wrote, were off-duty cops who rushed to help.
"The fact that one of my coworkers was on vacation tonight, heard what was happening, and suited up at home and came with us to fight the wolf. In my 12-man unit, only 9 of us were "on duty" - the other 3 came from home when they heard what was unfolding," he wrote.
He summed up, "If you wonder how cops view the communities they police, consider the fact that so many of them came in today, off duty, to help. Not because it's a job, but because it's their calling. It's who they are".
J Van Dyke's display photo on Facebook now is the logo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police covered with a black band, in protest against Sunday's mass shooting, the aftermath of which he
witnessed first hand.
You can read his entire post below
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