Brett Schwanbeck, a 61-year-old Caucasian male from Bullhead City, Arizona, was a retired truck driver with a deep love for the outdoors. He was a father to two sons and a daughter and a grandfather to five grandchildren. His youngest son, Shawn, remembered him as the "funnest guy in the world to be around" and recalled the countless expeditions they took to camp, hunt, fish, and ride dirt bikes.
He had a passion for being in remote places, where he enjoyed getting lost in the woods.
On the evening of Sunday, October 1, 2017, Brett was attending the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas with his fiancée, Anna Orozco. During the first round of gunfire in what would become the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, he was struck by a bullet. With the help of several other people, his fiancée managed to get him into an ambulance that transported him to Sunrise Hospital.
After being shot, Brett Schwanbeck fought for his life. He ultimately succumbed to a head wound and died on Tuesday, October 3, 2017. The perpetrator of the attack was identified as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, who had opened fire on the festival crowd from his 32nd-floor hotel room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Paddock was found to have died by suicide in his hotel room.
