Security CEO in charge of Route 91 Harvest festival speaks out
Contemporary Services Corporation CEO Damon Zumwalt on the Las Vegas shooting and why hotels may need to enhance their security measures.
Damon Zumwalt, CEO of Contemporary Services Corporation, who employed about 200 security officers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas when a barrage of bullets ripped through the crowd, killing 58 and injuring 489, told FOX Business that there is only one way the incident could have been prevented.
“The only way to prevent something like this from happening is do what they do in some of the countries outside of the U.S. after terrorist attacks and things like that, is that they have gone to scanning everything going into the hotel, just like we do at the airport,” Zumwalt told FOX Business anchor Liz Claman on “Countdown to the Closing Bell."
“Other than that there is not much you can do to stop it, other than what they do at the Secret Service by putting point men in different areas to scan different facilities,” he added.
Zumwalt said the night of the incident, he got a call from one of his managers who was right in the middle of crowd, telling him that there was an active shooter and they need to evacuate. However, he said that during the middle of the call, he lost connection with him.
“All I could do was wait and get reports from the news. And, the first news reports said two passed away and 24 are in the hospital. Then an hour and a half later, I was able to contact my manager and I said are these reports accurate and he said they are nowhere near accurate that there are bodies everywhere. There is 20 or 30 people down and hundreds going to the hospital.”
Three of his officers were shot and dozens were injured last Sunday night when Stephen Paddock opened fired on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas. One of Zumwalt’s employees, 21 year-old, Eric Silva died.
“It is tragic. This young man had a lot of promise. He was ready to advance his life and support his family. And, he was ready to advance in the company,” Zumwalt said.
Contemporary Service Corporation operates in over 50 office branches across the United States and provides security and crowd control for major events like the Olympics, NCAA Final Four Tournaments, Presidents Cup, and multiple Super Bowls.