FALL FUN: CORN MAZE, ZIPLINE READY TO OPEN IN ECHO/6A
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
141st Year, No. 251
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
SHOOTING SPREE AT LAS VEGAS COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL
One dollar
BOARDMAN
Deputy
cleared
in I-84
shooting
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
AP Photo/Chris Carlson
Investigators load a truck with bodies from the scene of a mass shooting at a music festival near the Mandalay Bay resort and casino on
the Las Vegas Strip Monday in Las Vegas.
GUNMAN KILLS 59
Pendleton couple dives for cover,
then helps wounded get out
527 injured as
gunfi re comes
from Mandalay
Bay tower
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
By SALLY HO and
REGINA GARCIA CANO
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — The
rapid-fi re popping sounded
like fi recrackers at fi rst,
and many in the crowd of
22,000 country music fans
didn’t understand what was
happening when the band
stopped playing and singer
Jason Aldean bolted off the
stage.
“That’s gunshots,” a
man could be heard saying
emphatically on a cell-
phone video in the nearly
half-minute of silence and
confusion that followed. A
woman pleaded with others:
“Get down! Get down! Stay
down!”
Then the pop-pop-pop
noise resumed. And pure
terror set in.
“People start screaming
and yelling and we start
running,” said Andrew
Akiyoshi, who provided the
cellphone video to The Asso-
ciated Press. “You could feel
the panic. You could feel like
the bullets were fl ying above
us. Everybody’s ducking
down, running low to the
ground.”
While some concertgoers
hit the ground, others pushed
for the crowded exits,
See VEGAS/11A
Contributed photo
Elaine and Kevin Anderson (on
left) and Kevin’s sister, Kathleen
Waters, smile for the camera
shortly before heading back to
a country music festival on Sun-
day night in Las Vegas where 59
people died in a mass shooting.
Elaine Anderson’s posts to her
Facebook account this weekend
seemed typical for someone on a
Las Vegas vacation. Photographs
of swimming in the hotel pool. The
Bellagio Fountain. Images of a
country music festival.
Her post on Sunday night,
however, was anything but typical.
“Very scary tonight,” it started.
“Many people killed…”
She and her husband Kevin
escaped with their lives after a
gunman opened fi re on country music
fans watching singer Jason Aldean at
the Route 91 Harvest country music
festival. The Pendleton couple dove
for cover along with everyone else.
The barrage of gunfi re killed at least
59 people and wounded more than
500 in the worst mass shooting in
American history. SWAT offi cers
swarmed the nearby Mandalay Bay
Resort and Casino and found the
apparent shooter, Stephen Craig
Paddock, 64, dead in his 32nd-fl oor
hotel room with a cache of rifl es and
ammunition.
The Andersons had spent the
See DEPUTY/12A
“Please continue to pray for the families that were not as lucky as we were.”
— Elaine Anderson, survivor of mass shooting at Route 91 Harvest country music festival
LEFT: Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal / RIGHT:Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP photo
LEFT: People assist a wounded woman at the Tropicana during an active shooter situation on the Las Vegas
Strip in Las Vegas Sunday. RIGHT: A broken window at the Mandalay Bay resort and casino is seen in the
aftermath of a mass shooting on Monday.
Morrow County District
Attorney Justin Nelson said a
grand jury found no criminal
wrongdoing in deputy Aaron
Haak’s Sept. 22 shooting of
an armed man.
The grand jury Monday
afternoon watched police
video footage from the
shooting that took place
along Interstate 84 near
Boardman. The grand jury
also heard testimony from
the state police detective who
investigated the case. After
reviewing the evidence, he
said he asked the jury if it
wanted his offi ce to pursue
charges against Haak.
“And their response was
no,” Nelson said.
Nelson said the shooting
victim, Efren Hurtado Jr., 26,
of Boardman, is recovering
at a Portland hospital, and
was well enough to talk to
police, in spite of taking a
bullet to the head.
Haak, of Heppner, parked
his police car behind an older
Chevy Tahoe on the west-
bound side of Interstate 84
near the exit for Boardman
in the early morning hours
of Sept. 22. Nelson said
other offi cers the day before
noticed the vehicle, and Haak
was going to make sure state
police tagged it for towing.
See DEPUTY/12A
HERMISTON
Graduation
ceremony
moved to
Kennewick
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
After three months of
discussion, research and
community surveys, the
Hermiston School Board
made its decision Monday
night: Hermiston High
School’s Class of 2018 will
toss their caps at the Toyota
Center in Kennewick.
The board voted 6-1 to
move the ceremony across
the river in June 2018, and
will revisit local options
afterward. Board member
Jason Middleton was the
lone “no” vote.
“This has been a long
process,” said board chair
Karen Sherman. “But we
know (the decision) is the
best we can do for students
and families.”
See GRAD/12A
PENDLETON
State bars city from going public
with marijuana revenue information
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The city of Pendleton has
received some marijuana sales
tax revenue, but Finance Director
Linda Carter will not disclose how
much.
At least not yet.
When the city contracted
with the Oregon Department of
Revenue to collect the local 3
percent tax and the city’s share
of the 17 percent state tax, Carter
agreed not to publicly disclose how
much money the city was receiving
from marijuana sales taxes.
While cities have interpreted
this agreement differently, Carter
said her understanding is that she’s
not allowed to talk about how
much money the city has received
from marijuana tax revenue so
far, although she characterized the
amount as “minimal.”
Joy Krawczyk, a spokeswoman
for the department of revenue,
said the rule is in place to protect
businesses’ private fi nancial infor-
mation. In cities or counties with
10 or fewer marijuana businesses,
Krawczyk said, specifi c revenue
fi gures could be used to identify
See REVENUE/12A
Fluffy clouds, fl uffy sheep
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Cumulus clouds move slowly over a herd of sheep as they graze in
a fi eld Monday east of Echo.