Prison warden recalls being in Las Vegas during shooting
Joe DeMore, a Western Pennsylvania county prison warden, was in Las Vegas when the 2017 shooting occurred. • Photos Submitted
By Tom Victoria
Joe DeMore was undaunted by a career in corrections and competing in mixed martial arts. It wasn’t until Joe was in Las Vegas vacationing in 2017 during a shooting spree that he thought his life might be in jeopardy.
“It was pretty scary,” he said.
Joe, the warden of the Butler County Prison in Western Pennsylvania, was inside the Planet Hollywood casino on October 1 when word of the shooting broke.
“I was playing cards,” he said.
His friend, who was watching television coverage of the initial report, expressed concern. Joe said he believed the incident would not have a wide impact.
“I thought no big deal,” he said.
However, Joe soon realized the gravity of the situation upon hearing subsequent reports. As the two men went to leave the building to return to their hotel, building security advised them to remain due to fears of multiple shooters being on the loose.
They initially headed to the walkway connected to a shopping mall. But dozens of screaming people came rushing from there.
“At that point, it was mass chaos,” Joe said.
Joe shot these photographs of deserted Las Vegas streets following the shooting.
The casino went into lockdown. Joe was one of 35 people who entered a stairwell. He tried to keep his impromptu companions calm while realizing the difficulty of escaping an area where most doors are locked from the outside if a shooter would burst into the enclosed space.
Joe told the others to keep their mobile phones on silent mode.
“I said we just don’t want people to know we’re down here,” he recalled.
The group started to descend the steps.
“It was kind of hairy for a couple minutes,” Joe said.
After a seemingly much lengthier 15 minutes, a casino manager wearing a headpiece was informed it was safe to exit the stairwell. Joe and his friend joined several hundred people huddled on the casino’s mezzanine level. He became concerned facility security were not armed.
“I was looking at different ways to get out of there,” Joe said.
During those few hours, he noted the absence of sound in the casino.
“The eerie part of it - there wasn’t any noise,” Joe said. “It was a ghost town.”
He eventually started receiving updates from his brother, one of the eight people in their vacation party to make it back to their hotel.
Joe credits his training for being able to deal with crisis without losing his nerve.
“It definitely helped,” he said. “I was very alert.”
Relief set in when everyone was allowed to depart the casino. Joe noted the empty streets, a rare sight in Las Vegas.
Although he was reluctant to travel so soon after the harrowing incident, his wife convinced him to not cancel a trip to New York a month later to watch UFC fights in Madison Square Garden.
Joe was relieved to see armed SWAT members patrolling the event. He later returned to Las Vegas during Super Bowl weekend that January.
“It wasn’t bad,” Joe said about his less eventful trip.
His journey into mixed martial arts began as a high school wrestler. Although Joe did not compete in college, he continued working out with skilled grapplers.
Joe was a mixed martial arts fighter in the late 2000s.
In 2007, seven years after graduating college, Joe watched MMA fights in Steubenville, Ohio. He was intrigued by the combat.
“I said I can beat these guys,” Joe said.
After five months of training, he started his amateur fighting at 30 years old. He ended up with a record of 6 wins and 3 losses, some of which were split decisions.
Joe turned professional in 2008. He fought at Mellon Arena, formerly known as the Civic Arena, in Pittsburgh before 4,000 spectators. A torn ACL at 33 caused his retirement from MMA.
“I have no regrets,” Joe said. “It’s just something I felt passionate about.”
He also worked as fight matchmaker as MMA burgeoned in the Steel City.
“I consider myself one of the pioneers in Pittsburgh.”