Hollywood Bowl Announces Extensive New Security Measures After Las Vegas Shootings
The owners of the iconic Hollywood Bowl venue in Los Angeles have reportedly stepped up security measures to an extreme level in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shootings.
Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured 546 more when he opened fire from a hotel room overlooking the Route 91 Harvest Festival on Oct. 1. It was later revealed he had rented a hotel room that would have theoretically positioned him for a similar mass killing at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago earlier that same month.
In response, TMZ reports that the Mulholland Overlook Park, which offers scenic views of LA along with clear views of the Hollywood Bowl seating area, is to be closed to the public every night the venue is hosting a concert. Along with instituting a 900-foot exclusion zone around the Bowl, LAPD officers and city park rangers will be deployed on security patrols during events. “The Bowl’s plan is a direct response to the Vegas massacre,” said TMZ.
Security expert Brian Jenkins said soon after the shootings that many Los Angeles public events suffered “virtually infinite” vulnerabilities, adding: “You think of anything where there is an assembly of people; that can be an open-air concert, it can be a tourist venue, it can be anything,” he said. “You can think of all of the open-air attractions we have in Los Angeles — all of them are vulnerable.”
The Hollywood Bowl unknowingly played host to Tom Petty's final concert on Sept. 25. Linkin Park held their memorial concert to late frontman Chester Bennington at the venue on Oct. 27, while the Zac Brown Band and Morrissey are both scheduled to appear in the coming weeks.
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