Paramount+ to Stream 2017 Las Vegas Mass Shooting Docuseries

Posted on: September 12, 2022, 02:49h. 

Last updated on: September 12, 2022, 03:42h.

Paramount+ unveiled its fall schedule today and a major release set for the streaming service takes a close look at the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 58 people.

Paramount+ 11 Minutes Las Vegas shooting 2017
“11 Minutes” on Paramount+ takes viewers inside the chaotic response to the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. The massacre forever changed Southern Nevada and permanently scarred many survivors and first responders. (Image: Paramount+)

October 1 will mark five years since the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Paramount+ will commemorate the lives lost, survivors, and first responders with the “11 Minutes” doc premiering on September 27. It is a four-part documentary “that takes viewers inside the heart-stopping stories of terror and survival experienced by those who were at the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival” in Las Vegas that horrific night.

The docu-series chronicles the gruesome events beginning around 10:05 pm PDT on Oct. 1, 2017. For the next 11 minutes, a gunman fired from his 32nd-floor suite at Mandalay Bay at an outdoor country music festival across the Strip at Las Vegas Village.

Armed with an arsenal of high-powered weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition, Stephen Paddock fired gunshots in rapid succession at innocent country music fans until he committed suicide around 10:16 pm local time.

Some 58 people were murdered that night and nearly 500 others were injured. Two additional people later died after succumbing to their injuries, taking the death toll to 61, including Paddock.

Streaming This Month

The series features interviews with an array of people on-site that day, including Jason Aldean, the headlining act of the Route 91 Harvest that year. Aldean was on stage at the time of the shooting.

When I turned around, my bass player was just looking at me like a deer in the headlights. And my security guy was on stage telling me to get down, waving me off the stage,” Aldean comments in the documentary.

“11 Minutes” also features first-person narratives from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, trauma doctors, hospital triage staff, and casino and concert security.

Using never-before-seen police bodycam footage and 200 hours of cell phone video, ’11 Minutes’ lets viewers accompany heavily armed officers on a hair-raising mission, as step-by-step, they approach the shooter’s hotel room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay,” the documentary’s description reads.

The film was directed by Emmy-winning director Jeff Zimbalist, whose documentary credits include “The Two Escobars,” an installment of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, the Netflix series “ReMastered,” and “The Line” on Apple TV.

Motive Mystery

The FBI never concluded what prompted Paddock to commit mass murder and to end his life at 64 years old. The federal investigative agency closed its probe of the Las Vegas mass shooting in early 2019 by explaining that the gunman worked diligently to keep his personal life private.

Throughout his life, Paddock went to great lengths to keep his thoughts private, and that extended to his final thinking about this mass murder,” the FBI report summarized.

The shooting resulted in many changes to how Strip casinos operate. The days of occupied casino hotel rooms going unchecked for days are supposedly no more, as casinos have committed to regularly inspecting guestrooms. Guests are also no longer permitted, as they once were, to transport luggage to their rooms via service elevators, as was the case with Paddock at Mandalay Bay.

Most housekeepers in Las Vegas today are also fitted with crisis buttons to notify security in the event of an emergency.