A Disney employee was killed and a second one injured in Sunday’s massacre at the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas, Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company, said in a statement Monday night.
“Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by the tragic events in Las Vegas – the victims of violence, the witnesses, and the friends and families mourning loved ones,” Iger wrote. “We are especially heartbroken over the loss of one of our own to this unconscionable and senseless act. Carrie Barnette had been a member of the Disney California Adventure culinary team for ten years and was beloved by her friends and colleagues. Our thoughts are with her family, along with our support, during this incredibly difficult time. Another valued Disney cast member, Jessica Milam, was also seriously injured and we are praying for her recovery.”
The Vegas shooting occurred shortly after 10 p.m. PT Sunday during a Jason Aldean performance on the final night of the three-day Route 91 Harvest festival, held in a lot across Las Vegas Boulevard from the Mandalay Bay hotel. A shooter fired round after round from a high-rise room down onto a crowded country music concert, killing at least 59 people and injuring 527.
The suspect, identified as a 64-year-old white man named Stephen Craig Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada, was found dead on the 32nd floor of the hotel with a cache of “in excess of 10 rifles,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. Law enforcement officials reported Monday night that the killer had an arsenal of 23 guns in his hotel room with an additional 19 found in his home.
It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, surpassing the terror attack at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people and injured 58 others in June 2016.